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Considering the importance of knowledge, attitudes and practice (KAP) in communities toward COVID-19 and the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination in the control of this disease, this study aims to evaluate and compare the KAP level toward COVID-19 and the acceptance rate of COVID-19 vaccination between the Afghan immigrant population and Iranians

This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in 2021 on Afghan immigrants, Afghan-neighboring Iranians and Afghan nonneighboring Iranians. Of the 885 people who participated in the survey, 295 from each group were randomly selected. Data collection tools were the following questionnaires: KAP toward COVID-19 and acceptance and attitude toward COVID-19 vaccination.

A total of 837 participants were included for data analysis. According to the findings, the KAP score on COVID-19 in Afghan immigrants was lower than the group of Iranians. Compared with Iranians, the score of nonneighboring Iranians was higher than the neighboring Iranians with Afghan immigrants. This difference in the mean scores suggests a statistically significant difference in the three groups (p < 0.0001). Among demographic data, the relationship between gender, education, type of job, income level and age with KAP indicated a significant difference in the total population studied. In the group of Afghan immigrants, the most likely reason for accepting the vaccination was the employer’s recommendation (55.63%). In comparison, the neighboring and nonneighboring Iranian groups with Afghan immigrants stated that they would receive the vaccine as soon as possible (49.22% and 63.22%, respectively).

Considering the low KAP score in the immigrant population in this study, these people are more vulnerable to the health and socioeconomic effects of COVID-19; therefore, the host countries have more challenges and responsibilities to protect these populations.

The purpose of this study is to scrutinize the influence of individual learning styles on the effectiveness of augmented reality (AR)-based learning in structural engineering. There has been a lack of research examining the correlation between learning efficiency and learning style, particularly in the context of quantitatively assessing the efficacy of AR in structural engineering education.

Using Kolb’s experiential learning theory (ELT), a model that emphasizes learning through experience, students from the construction management department are assigned four learning styles (converging, assimilating, diverging and accommodating). Performance data were gathered, appraised, and compared through the three dimensions from the Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP) survey model across four categories of Kolb’s learning styles in both text-graph (TG)-based and AR-based learning settings.

The findings indicate that AR-based materials positively impact structural engineering education by enhancing overall learning performance more than TG-based materials. It is also found that the learning style has a profound influence on learning effectiveness, with AR technology markedly improving the information retrieval processes, particularly for converging and assimilating learners, then diverging learners, with a less significant impact on accommodating learners.

These results corroborate prior research analyzing learners' outcomes with hypermedia and informational learning systems. It was found that learners with an “abstract” approach (convergers and assimilators) outperform those with a “concrete” approach (divergers and accommodators). This research emphasizes the importance of considering learning styles before integrating technologies into civil engineering education, thereby assisting software developers and educational institutions in creating more effective teaching materials tailored to specific learning styles.

Given the critical importance of green innovation (GI) for organizations in developing economies, this study aims to examine the interrelationship between knowledge management (KM) enablers, KM processes and GI. The research also indicates that certain combinations of KM enabler dimensions and KM processes can lead to better GI.

The study sample consists of 328 participants from Pakistan's medium- and large-sized manufacturing enterprises. Smart PLS 3.2.9 is used to verify the relationships. Moreover, the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) investigates configurational paths for improving GI.

The results demonstrate that KM enablers significantly affect two aspects of GI – green product and process innovation – and KM processes. Moreover, KM processes significantly enhance two aspects of GI. The fsQCA findings indicate multiple combinations of KM enablers and KM processes dimensions that result in better GI.

To better understand the critical role of knowledge resources, future studies should explore the potential mediating mechanisms of KM processes or the moderating effects of strategic organizational factors in the relationship between KM enablers and GI.

The study offers valuable insight and a unique approach for policymakers and executives of corporations in developing countries to enhance their organizations' GI capacity through KM enablers and KM processes.

This research contributes to bridging research gaps in the literature and advances insights into the interrelationship among KM enablers, KM processes and GI. In addition, the study offers methodological significance by combining direct and configurational techniques to address two distinct facets of GI.

The current study focuses on the relationship between total quality management (TQM) and sustainable performance (SP) and examines how TQM practices can facilitate firms' achievement of sustainable performance. Knowledge management (KM), with its four dimensions, i.e. knowledge creation (KCR), knowledge acquisition (KAC), knowledge sharing (KSH) and knowledge application (KAP), is also an essential factor for organizations. Therefore, this study also focuses on the mediating role of KM in the relationship between TQM and sustainable performance.

This study used a survey method to collect data from the managers of 485 manufacturing SMEs working in five major industrial cities in Pakistan. Collected data were analyzed through PLS-SEM with the help of smart-PLS.

The study's findings reveal that TQM practices positively influence the environmental and economic sustainability of the firm. At the same time, there is no evidence that TQM practices positively affect the social sustainability of the firm. Results further elaborate that TQM practices significantly affect all four dimensions of KM. Moreover, KM positively affects the two dimensions of SP, i.e. economic and social sustainability, but surprisingly, the impact of KM on environmental sustainability is not found. Finally, results indicate the significant mediating role of KM between TQM and SP.

This study contributes to bridging research gaps in the literature and advances how TQM, directly and indirectly, helps firms improve sustainable performance via the mediating role of KM.

This research discloses the effect of religiosity on purchasing intention through serial-mediation paths in a halal-certified food context. Borrowing from the identity theory while supplemented by the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and the knowledge–attitude–practice (KAP) theory, a 4-layered framework is developed to investigate such an issue.

264 questionnaires are collected in the field study conducted in Tunis, Tunisia. Quota sampling method is applied. Testing of the hypotheses is performed using partial least square analysis.

The findings reveal that religiosity affects the four mediators—awareness, trust, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control—which in turn affect attitude, and purchase intention towards halal-certified food is eventually aroused. These four serial-mediation paths are further proved to form the mechanisms.

The field study participants are limited to consumers in Tunis. Besides, a mechanism to collect the data from general public including lower educated consumers should be necessary.

This research is a pioneering work investigating the sequential intervening effect in the religiosity-intention relationship in halal-certified food. The authors provide unique and fruitful insights into this relatively untapped field for academia and firms.

This study aims to examine the effect of family ownership on audit fees and whether political connections moderate the causal relationship. Indonesia, as emerging countries, arguably offers appropriate research setting for this research because most Indonesian firms are family owned and exhibit weak investor protection. The authors predict that family ownership positively affects audit fees, and political connections strengthen this influence.

This study uses 98 listed manufacturing firms on Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) in 2018–2020, resulting in 279 firm-year observations. Panel data regression used to test the hypothesis. Family ownership is divided into direct and indirect ownership while audit fees are measured by the natural logarithm of audit fees paid by the firms.

The results show that the greater total and direct family ownerships imply lower audit fees, while indirect family ownership does not affect audit fees. The finding is contrary to the alleged hypothesis. Further, political connections only strengthen direct family ownership's negative impact on audit fees.

This study's findings support the alignment effect hypothesis arguing that controlling shareholders, in this case, families, align their interests with non-controlling shareholders. These findings provide a different perspective from various empirical studies conducted in Asian countries where the majority of companies are also controlled.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact and mechanism of WeChat public platforms articles (abbreviated as WPP) on blood donation behavior using data of WPPA and donation behavior data.

This paper uses multiple linear regression methods, web crawlers and natural language processing technology. It first quantifies the impact of WPP published articles on donation behavior. On this basis, it then selects data from the day of article publication to further study the impact of article dissemination on donation behavior from the perspective of reading quantity, and analyzes the influencing factors of article reading quantity.

The results show that on the same day that an article is published, there is an increase of 13.8 and 14.3% in blood donation volume and fan registrations, respectively. The mediating effect exists. However, the day after an article is published, there is no longer any effect on blood donations. With a 1% increase in reading quantity, blood donation volume on the day of article publication increases by 0.13%, and this positive impact is promoted by the quality of the articles. A conc ise articles title and body and rich images help drive reading quantity. Moreover, blood donors prefer to read articles about blood dynamics and donation promotion, while articles about news, announcements and administrative affairs make them less inclined to read.

First, it focuses on WPPA, quantifies the impact of articles on blood donation behavior and analyzes the mechanism. Second, the authors study the impact and timeliness of social media article dissemination to address the insufficiency of existing research. Third, the study provides a scientific basis for the editing and publishing of articles, helping blood banks improve the effectiveness of publicity and recruitment.

This study aims to examine the functions of hijab fashion among hijab-wearing women and explore the role of social media and influencers in hijab fashion.

The authors conducted in-depth interviews with 29 hijab-wearing women in Turkey. The authors collected data in June–November 2020.

Findings show that hijab fashion functions as encouragement, attraction, modesty and social image among Turkish Muslim women. This study also shows that social media and influencers change the meaning of the hijab while promoting hijab fashion. Findings reveal that Instagram boutiques act as digital fashion magazines, which enable women to integrate faster into popular culture today. While influencers have increased the number of hijab-wearing women, they have also turned the hijab into a commodity in the market by degenerating its true meaning.

This study has several limitations regarding the sample and geographic context of consumers. This study may not represent Turkish Muslim women’s behavior as our sample consists of 29 women. Therefore, larger samples are needed to generalize our findings. Undertaking cross-cultural studies will also enable marketers to make cultural comparisons.

This study offers some insights for Islamic marketing practitioners in terms of influencer using in hijab fashion.

This study adds to the previous research on hijab fashion and hijab consumption on Instagram. This study also extends the previous literature by examining the role of social media and influencers in hijab fashion. Findings revealed that the hijab is gradually losing its spiritual value by becoming a commodity packaged and marketed through Instagram and influencers.

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of the implementation of safety-oriented knowledge management (KM) processes and student diversity acceptance in schools and the interaction effect of safety-oriented KM processes and student diversity acceptance over school performance and student academic orientation.

Responses of 977 American schools available in the database of the National Center for Education Statistics were analyzed using hierarchical regression analyses.

Results show that implementation of safety-oriented KM processes and diversity acceptance in schools have varying effects on school performance and student academic orientation. The impact of knowledge acquisition from parents on the academic achievement of students is positive and stronger in schools that are low in student diversity acceptance than schools that are high in student diversity acceptance.

This study adds value to the KM literature by exploring how KM processes are executed in American schools to improve their performance and students’ academic orientation and how diversity among students alters the strength of the relationships.

This article analyzes the moderating role of investment opportunities, business risk and agency costs in shaping the nexus between excess cash and corporate performance.

This research uses dynamic regression models (two-step system generalized method of moments) to analyze the data related to 200 Turkish companies listed on Borsa Istanbul (BIST) for the years between 2009 and 2020.

The findings indicate that when excess cash increases, the financial performance deteriorates only for firms with lower investments compared to firms with more investments. In addition, investment contributes to better financial performance for firms that hold cash surplus, whereas the influence of investment is insignificant for firms that have insufficient cash. Agency costs of equity exacerbate the adverse impact of excess cash on financial performance while agency costs of debt mitigate this effect. Excess cash reduces the financial performance of highly leveraged firms. However, this impact becomes insignificant when debt ratio decreases. The findings also show that investment has more significant role than business risk in building the precautionary motive to hold cash.

The findings of this article are limited to the Turkish market. Future research is still needed in other emerging markets to compare the results and reveal more about the effect of excess cash on firm performance, and how other factors can change this effect.

The findings verify the increased significance of excess cash in the presence of investment opportunities and difficulties in accessing external funds. Nevertheless, the role of the equity related agency problem in reducing the benefits of cash surplus confirms the necessity of policies that support corporate governance, especially in emerging markets.

This article, according to the knowledge of author, is the first to examine the role of agency costs associated with debt and equity, and the compound effect of investment opportunities and business risk on the nexus between excess internal funds and corporate financial performance in emerging markets.