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While most West European nations were formed around pre-existing entities that could be called “countries” before the modern age, this was not the case in the Middle East. Some entities, like Egypt, did have a clear political and cultural identity before colonialism, others, like Algeria, did not. This chapter discusses the four states of the Maghreb: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, through the perspective of “country creation” going into and coming out of colonial rule. We can see here two “models” of fairly similar types of historical development, one showing a gradual process through a protectorate period to relatively stable modern nations, another through violent conquest and direct colonization ending in violent liberation and military and wealthy but fragile states. The article asks whether these models for the history of country creation and the presence or absence of pre-colonial identities can help explain the modern history and nature of these states in the Arab Spring and the years thereafter. Then, a more tentative attempt is made to apply these models to two countries of the Arab east, Syria and Iraq. While local variations ensure that no model can be transferred directly, it can show the importance of studying the historical factors that go into the transition from geographical region to a country with people that can form the basis of a nation.

This paper aims to present numerical simulations for a series of flight processes for the postlaunching stage of the “balloon-borne UAV system.” It includes the balloon further ascent motion after airborne launching. In terms of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the tailspin state and the charge-out process with an anti-tailspin parachute-assisted suspending are analyzed. Then, the authors conduct trajectory optimization simulations for the long-distance gliding process.

The balloon kinematics model and the parachute Kane multibody dynamic model are established. Using steady-state tailspin to reduced-order analysis and achieving change-out simulation by parachute suspension dynamic model. A reentry optimization control problem is developed and the Radau pseudo-spectral method is used to calculate the glide trajectory.

The established dynamic model and trajectory optimization method can effectively simulate the motion process of balloons and UAVs. The system mass reduction for launching UAVs will not cause damage to the balloon structure. The anti-tailspin parachute can reduce the UAV attack angles effectively. The UAV can glide to the designated target position by adjusting the attack angle and sideslip angle. The farthest flight distance after launching from 20 km height is 94 km and the gliding time is 40 min, which demonstrates the potential application advantage of high-altitude launching.

The research content and related conclusions of this article achieve a closed-loop analysis of the flight mission chain for the “balloon-borne UAV system,” which provides simulation references for relevant balloon launching experiments.

This paper establishes a complete set of numerical simulation models and can effectively analyze various postlaunching behaviors.

This research study aims to minimize autonomous flight cost and maximize autonomous flight performance of a slung load carrying rotary wing mini unmanned aerial vehicle (i.e. UAV) by stochastically optimizing autonomous flight control system (AFCS) parameters. For minimizing autonomous flight cost and maximizing autonomous flight performance, a stochastic design approach is benefitted over certain parameters (i.e. gains of longitudinal PID controller of a hierarchical autopilot system) meanwhile lower and upper constraints exist on these design parameters.

A rotary wing mini UAV is produced in drone Laboratory of Iskenderun Technical University. This rotary wing UAV has three blades main rotor, fuselage, landing gear and tail rotor. It is also able to carry slung loads. AFCS variables (i.e. gains of longitudinal PID controller of hierarchical autopilot system) are stochastically optimized to minimize autonomous flight cost capturing rise time, settling time and overshoot during longitudinal flight and to maximize autonomous flight performance. Found outcomes are applied during composing rotary wing mini UAV autonomous flight simulations.

By using stochastic optimization of AFCS for rotary wing mini UAVs carrying slung loads over previously mentioned gains longitudinal PID controller when there are lower and upper constraints on these variables, a high autonomous performance having rotary wing mini UAV is obtained.

Approval of Directorate General of Civil Aviation in Republic of Türkiye is essential for real-time rotary wing mini UAV autonomous flights.

Stochastic optimization of AFCS for rotary wing mini UAVs carrying slung loads is properly valuable for recovering autonomous flight performance cost of any rotary wing mini UAV.

Establishing a novel procedure for improving autonomous flight performance cost of a rotary wing mini UAV carrying slung loads and introducing a new process performing stochastic optimization of AFCS for rotary wing mini UAVs carrying slung loads meanwhile there exists upper and lower bounds on design variables.

The purpose of this review paper was identifying barriers to the use of telemedicine systems in primary health-care individual level among professionals.

This study used Scopus and PubMed databases for scientific records identification. A systematic review of the literature structured by PRISMA guidelines was conducted on 37 included papers published between 2009 and 2019. A qualitative approach was used to synthesize insights into using telemedicine by primary care professionals.

Three barriers were identified and classified: system quality, data quality and service quality barriers. System complexity in terms of usability, system unreliability, security and privacy concerns, lack of integration and inflexibility of systems-in-use are related to system quality. Data quality barriers are data inaccuracy, data timeliness issues, data conciseness concerns and lack of data uniqueness. Finally, service reliability concerns, lack of technical support and lack of user training have been categorized as service quality barriers.

This review identified and mapped emerging themes of barriers to the use of telemedicine systems. This paper also through a new conceptualization of telemedicine use from perspectives of the primary care professionals contributes to informatics literature and system usage practices.

This research paper aims to investigate the effects of internal audit’s (IA) use of data analytics and the performance of consulting activities on perceived IA quality.

The authors conduct a 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment among upper and middle managers where the use of data analytics and the performance of consulting activities by internal auditors are manipulated.

Results highlight the importance of internal auditor use of data analytics and performance of consulting activities to improve perceived IA quality. First, managers perceive internal auditors as more competent when the auditors use data analytics. Second, managers perceive internal auditors’ recommendations as more relevant when the auditors perform consulting activities. Finally, managers perceive an improvement in the quality of relationships with internal auditors when auditors perform consulting activities, which is strengthened when internal auditors combine the use of data analytics and the performance of consulting activities.

From a theoretical perspective, this research builds on the IA quality framework by considering digitalization as a contextual factor. This research focused on the perceptions of one major stakeholder of the IA function: senior management. Future research should investigate the perceptions of other stakeholders and other contextual factors.

This research suggests that internal auditors should prioritize the development of the consulting role in their function and develop their digital expertise, especially expertise in data analytics, to improve perceived IA quality.

This research tests the impacts of the use of data analytics and the performance of consulting activities on perceived IA quality holistically, by testing Trotman and Duncan’s (2018) framework using an experiment.

Due to the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, increasing the use of AI in healthcare is critical, but few studies have explored the extent to which physicians cooperate with AI in their work to achieve productive and innovative performance, which is a key issue in operations management (OM). We conducted empirical research to answer this question.

We developed a conceptual model based on the ambidextrous perspective. To test our model, we collected data from 200 Chinese hospitals. One senior and one junior physician from each hospital participated in this research so that we could get a more comprehensive view. Based on the sample of 400 participants and the conceptual model, we examined whether different types of AI use have distinct impacts on physicians’ productivity and innovation by conducting hierarchical regression and post hoc tests. We also introduced team psychological safety climate (TPSC) and AI technology uncertainty (AITU) as moderators to investigate this topic in further detail.

We found that augmentation AI use is positively related to overall productivity and innovative job performance, while automation AI use is negatively related to these two outcomes. Furthermore, we focused on the impacts of the ambidextrous use of AI on these two outcomes. The results highlight the positive impacts of complementary use on both outcomes and the negative impact of balance on innovative job performance. TPSC enhances the positive impacts of complementary use on productivity, whereas AITU inhibits the negative impacts of automation and balanced use on innovative job performance.

In the age of AI, organizations face greater trade-offs between performance and technology management. This study contributes to the OM literature from the perspectives of operational performance and technology management in three ways. First, it distinguishes among different AI implementations and their diverse impacts on productivity and innovative performance. Second, it identifies the different conditions under which automation AI use and augmentation are superior. Third, it extends the ambidextrous perspective by becoming an early adopter of this approach to explore the implications of different types of AI use in light of contingency factors.

This study aimed to assess the influence of the community-based campaign on weight loss and healthy lifestyle adoption among Bahrain's adult population.

A cross -sectional self-reported online questionnaire completed in February 2021. The survey evaluated the impact of the community-based campaign health program which includes (exercise, diet plan and psychological eating behavior) weight reduction using social media platforms. The authors employed data from young and middle-aged healthy adults (n = 842) between the ages of 18-55 years, of both sexes. The intervention group (n = 842) was made up of the supporters of the voluntary community initiative called Obesity does not Suit Me (n = 194), and the control group (n = 648) was made up of non-followers of the campaign.

The study showed a statistically significant difference among the followers of the community-based campaign health program in the following parameters: 3.90-4.23 kg less, 1.46-1.59 difference in BMI and 0.05-0.06 WHR. All changes were of low effect size.

Diet and exercise had significant impact on weight, BMI and WHR among the followers of the community campaign. However, more research is required for sponsorship to increase the motivation and rewards for the community campaign.

This study explores the influence of the Top Management Team (TMT) social capital on business model innovation in business ecosystems.

This study examines the impact of internal and external TMT social capital on enterprises’ business model innovation, explores the relationship between internal and external TMT social capital, and investigates how business ecosystem health moderates the relationship between external TMT social capital and enterprises’ business model innovation. These hypotheses are proposed and tested using a hierarchical regression analysis with data from 168 Chinese firms.

First, both internal and external TMT social capital exert a significantly positive influence on an enterprise’s business model innovation. Second, internal TMT social capital positively contributes to the development of external TMT social capital, affecting business model innovation. Finally, the moderating effect of business ecosystem health on the relationship between external TMT social capital and business model innovation depends on the dimensions. Specifically, the productivity of the business ecosystem negatively moderates this relationship, whereas the niche creation capability of the business ecosystem has a positive moderating effect.

These findings enrich prior research on business model innovation within the business ecosystem, thoroughly exploring the critical role of TMT social capital. This study reveals the diverse impacts of internal and external TMT social capital on business model innovation and the intricate relationship between these elements. Furthermore, it emphasizes that the success of enterprise’s business model innovation within a business ecosystem depends on the alignment and adaptation to dynamic ecosystem conditions. By presenting these insights, this study provides valuable practical implications for enterprises aiming to cultivate social capital within business ecosystem to facilitate business model innovation.

This paper aims to provide an examination of the use of the concept of resilience and its use in service organisation, ecosystem-related literature and the wider social sciences.

This paper provides a critical review and commentary on the resilience literature in the social and business sciences and its relevance to service organisations.

Two main approaches towards resilience are identified (engineering and socio-ecological resilience) with each having different assumptions about the nature of resilience with corresponding implications for policymaking, indicator selection and application in a service context. These approaches operate at different scales and possess different properties with respect to the likelihood of enacting transformative service marketing.

Different conceptualisations of resilience have profound implications for resilience-related policymaking as well as understanding change and adaptation in service ecosystems and organisations.

The transformative possibilities of resilience are connected to the active enhancement and construction of social capacity by service organisations and the persistent resilience of the resilience concept.

This paper highlights the importance of clearly defining the resilience concept and its implications for research and transformative service organisations.

Previous literature has identified human resources as a key source of competitive advantage in organizations of all sizes. However, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) face difficulty in comprehensively implementing all recommended Human Resource Management (HRM) functions. In this study, we shed light on the field of HRM in SMEs by focusing on the context of Greek Small and Medium-sized Hotels (SMHs), which represent a dominant private sector employer across the country.

Using a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and 34 in-depth interviews with SMHs' owners/managers, we explore the HRM conditions leading to high levels of performance, while taking into consideration the influence of internal key determinants.

We uncover three alternative successful HRM strategies that maximize business performance, namely the Compensation-based performers, the HRM developers and the HRM investors. Each strategy fits discreet organizational characteristics related to company size, ownership type and organizational structure.

To the best of the authors' knowledge this is among the first empirical studies that examine different and equifinal performance-enhancing configurations of HRM practices in SMHs.