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This study aims to contribute to the International Business literature by investigating the marketing stimuli that drive impulsiveness and perceived value in mobile shopping (MS) platforms and their impact on consumer response.

This study uses a sample of 891 MS platform users and applies structural equation modeling based on the stimulus–organism–response and the consumption value theory.

The empirical finding revealed that rewards, recognition, reviews and ratings are the most influential factors driving perceived value. In addition, the results indicated that customized offerings and visually appealing experiences were the most critical factors affecting the state of impulsiveness. This study also highlights the negative impact of the ubiquitous nature of MS on impulse buying behavior, emphasizing the importance of providing consumers with tools to make informed decisions. This study demonstrates a significant positive relationship between perceived value and impulsiveness, influencing MS.

This study reveals generational differences in the impact of reviews and ratings on perceived value, which can inform businesses’ MS strategies. The results have implications for managers of international firms seeking to optimize their business strategies.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, using structural equation modeling, this study is the first to conduct a comprehensive examination of marketing stimuli, impulsiveness and perceived value in MS platforms. It offers businesses strategic insights by identifying rewards, recognition and customized offerings as the key determinants of consumer behavior.

This study aims to address a significant and previously unanswered question for both academics and practitioners: how do organizations learn to apply Blockchain technology to support modern slavery (MS) supply chain capabilities? Specifically, this study examines whether employees’ digital dexterity (EDD) and strategic investment in Blockchain technology (SIBT) can support three MS supply chain capabilities: internal MS capability (IMSC), MS capability with customers (MSCC) and MS capability with suppliers (MSCS).

This study uses resource accumulation and deployment perspective to explain how EDD promotes SIBT, which then drives the development of MS supply chain capabilities. Survey data collected from the Chinese manufacturing industry were used to test the proposed theoretical framework and hypotheses through structural equation modelling and moderated regression analysis.

EDD has a positive relationship with SIBT. SIBT has a positive relationship with IMSC. IMSC fully mediates the relationships between SIBT and MS capability with customers and suppliers.

By conceptualizing MS supply chain capabilities as a multi-dimensional construct for the first time, this study discovers the significant mediating roles of IMSC. The empirical findings also clarify digital dexterity of employees that drives investment in Blockchain technology to foster MS supply chain capabilities as resource accumulation and deployment processes.

Owing to the significance of a healthy lifestyle, we investigate the antecedents of the healthy lifestyle of young consumers in Sri Lanka. 658 structured questionnaires were collected from young consumers in Sri Lanka as part of the survey procedure. The judgmental sampling method is used to choose the respondents. The analysis makes use of both descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings disclose a high degree of healthy lifestyle among young consumers in Sri Lanka. Further findings revealed that health consciousness, collective esteem, and neighborhood environment are the antecedents for a healthy lifestyle. As young consumers are more concerned about a healthy lifestyle, managers in certain industries such as food and beverages, hotels, and restaurants should adopt their products and services in line with a healthy lifestyle.

Implementing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) unarguably demands huge financial investments. However, the United Nations has acknowledged the huge financial gap militating against the implementation of the SDGs worldwide, leading experts to question the possibility of complete implementation of the goals by their terminal dateline of 2030. While the bulk of the finance currently outlaid on the SDGs comes from traditional sources including foreign direct investments (FDIs), there is the need to focus more attention on developing and exploiting impact investments that are more suitable for financing development programmes and projects. In this chapter, the SDG implementation profiles of the 12 Arab West Asia countries concerning the five most targeted SDGs were evaluated and sustainable finance issues were discussed. Secondary data were retrieved from World Bank's DataBank. The data were descriptively analyzed. Based on the profiles generated, debt relief is put forward as a possible impact investment mechanism suitable for funding the SDGs. Specifically, this chapter recommends that outright cancellation of debts based on the debt-for-SGD swap could serve as some of the impact investments needed to boost the global drive for a developed, peaceful, and just world.

This examine the impact of environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance on financial reporting quality (FRQ) before and during COVID-19 in the Egyptian market.

This study uses quarterly data from 2017 to 2021 to draw conclusions, with a sample consisting of 486 firm-year observations for 27 Egyptian companies listed on the Standard and Poor’s/Egyptian Stock Exchange ESG index. This study uses both firms’ ESG scores and the Beneish Model, an earnings detection model, as proxies for FRQ. COVID-19 effects on ESG performance and FRQ were examined by using Pearson’s correlation coefficient and two-stage least squares.

COVID-19 has a significant impact on the link between ESG and FRQ. This implies that corporations with high ESG performance are less likely to manipulate earnings (having a low M-score) and thus provide high FRQ during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, there is a significant positive relationship between firm size, leverage and M-Score, indicating that large firms typically present a high FRQ.

The sample size and data availability are the main research limitations. Additionally, this study only considers the effects of firms’ ESG performance on FRQ during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, future research should consider other factors associated with investors’ corporate social responsibility (CSR).

This research has practical implications for market regulators seeking to establish a legislative framework and enhance guidance to mandate managers to provide ESG data and CSR reports appropriate for Egypt and other developing economies in times of crisis.

Promoting the adoption of ESG practices in business, particularly during crises, has the potential to effectively provide high-quality and reliable financial reporting required for investment.

This study aspires to address notable deficiencies in the pertinent literature concerning the relationship between ESG performance and FRQ during COVID-19. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, little is known about how ESG performance changes in response to pandemics in emerging markets. To address this gap, this study examines the effects of COVID-19 on the relationship between ESG performance and FRQ in Egyptian-listed firms from 2017 to 2021.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors affecting behaviour intention (BI) to use and actual usages of investment-related FinTech services among the zoomers (Gen Z) and millennials (Gen M) retail investors of India.

The study explores the predictive relevance of actual adoption behaviour among the two different age categories of Indian retail investors. It uses the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology-2 and the prospect theory framework as guiding frameworks. Data has been collected from 294 retail investors, actively engaged in the investment-related FinTech services. The multi-group analysis using variance-based partial least square structured equation modelling has been used to compare the two groups. The invariance between the two groups was achieved through measurement invariance assessment.

The study reveals distinct factors significantly affecting BI to use investment-related FinTech services among Gen Z and Gen M retail investors are performance expectancy (PE) to BI, perceived risk (PR) to BI, price value (PV) to BI and PR to service trust (ST).

This study provides insights for financial providers and policymakers, emphasizing different factors influencing BI to use investment-related FinTech services in both age groups. Notably, habit emerges as a common factor influencing the actual usage of investment-related FinTech services across Gen M and Gen Z retail investors in India.

This study explores the heterogeneous behaviour of the heterogenous population in the domain of technological adoption of investment-related FinTech services in India.

The current chapter proposes a theoretical framework to assess the sustainability of economic growth in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States. The authors integrate insights from endogenous growth models and consider the unique socioeconomic characteristics of the GCC region to provide a comprehensive and tailored approach to understanding the determinants of economic growth and formulating effective policy measures to foster sustainable development and growth. This chapter highlights the environmental challenges faced by GCC; based on this, the authors suggested indicators to construct a theoretical framework (Economic Growth, Climatic Indicators, Energy Indicators, Social Indicators, and Economic Resources Indicators). The authors propose that policymakers and researchers in GCC States should take these factors into account when devising policies or conducting research aimed at fostering sustainable economic growth. Overall, this chapter presents significant insights for policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders involved in promoting the sustainable economic advancement of the GCC States.

This paper aims to analyze the relationships between human resource supply chain management (HRSCM), corporate culture (CC) and the code of business ethics (CBE) in the MENA region.

In this study, the author adopted a quantitative approach through an online Google Form survey for the data-gathering process. All questionnaires were distributed to the manufacturing and service firms that are listed in the Chambers of the Industries of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Egypt in the MENA region using a simple random sampling method. About 567 usable and valid responses were retrieved out of 2,077 for analysis, representing a 27.3% response rate. The sample unit for analysis included all middle- and senior-level managers and employees within manufacturing and service firms. The conceptual model was tested using a hypothesis-testing deductive approach. The findings are based on covariance-based analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) using PLS-SEM software. The author performed convergent validity and discriminant validity tests, and bootstrapping was also applied.

The empirical results display a significant and positive association between HRSCM and the CBE. The CC and the CBE tend to be positively and significantly related. Therefore, HRSCM can play a key role in boosting and applying the CBE in firms. For achieving the firm purposes, more attention to the HR personnel should be paid to implement the CBE. The high importance of the CBE becomes necessary for both the department and the firm.

Such results can provide insightful information for HR personnel, managers and leaders to encourage them to develop and maintain an effective corporate code of conduct within their organizations.

This paper tries to explore the linkages between HRSCM, CC and CBE in the Middle East region due to the lack of research available that analyzes the relationship between them. Not only that, but it also offers great implications for Middle Eastern businesses.

The study aims to optimize truck routes by minimizing social and economic costs. It introduces a strategy involving diverse drones and their potential for reusing at DNs based on flight range. In HTDRP-DC, trucks can select and transport various drones to LDs to reduce deprivation time. This study estimates the nonlinear deprivation cost function using a linear two-piece-wise function, leading to MILP formulations. A heuristic-based Benders Decomposition approach is implemented to address medium and large instances. Valid inequalities and a heuristic method enhance convergence boundaries, ensuring an efficient solution methodology.

Research has yet to address critical factors in disaster logistics: minimizing the social and economic costs simultaneously and using drones in relief distribution; deprivation as a social cost measures the human suffering from a shortage of relief supplies. The proposed hybrid truck-drone routing problem minimizing deprivation cost (HTDRP-DC) involves distributing relief supplies to dispersed demand nodes with undamaged (LDs) or damaged (DNs) access roads, utilizing multiple trucks and diverse drones. A Benders Decomposition approach is enhanced by accelerating techniques.

Incorporating deprivation and economic costs results in selecting optimal routes, effectively reducing the time required to assist affected areas. Additionally, employing various drone types and their reuse in damaged nodes reduces deprivation time and associated deprivation costs. The study employs valid inequalities and the heuristic method to solve the master problem, substantially reducing computational time and iterations compared to GAMS and classical Benders Decomposition Algorithm. The proposed heuristic-based Benders Decomposition approach is applied to a disaster in Tehran, demonstrating efficient solutions for the HTDRP-DC regarding computational time and convergence rate.

Current research introduces an HTDRP-DC problem that addresses minimizing deprivation costs considering the vehicle’s arrival time as the deprivation time, offering a unique solution to optimize route selection in relief distribution. Furthermore, integrating heuristic methods and valid inequalities into the Benders Decomposition approach enhances its effectiveness in solving complex routing challenges in disaster scenarios.

Purpose of This Chapter: >The study examines the importance and effect of working over office hours and lengthy commutes on work–life balance because both consume time away from the official working hours. The study utilized perceived organizational support to measure the moderating role of working over office hours, lengthy commutes, and work–family balance.

Design / Methodology / Approach: An inferential statistics cross-sectional study collected data from 437 full-time employees of IT-BPM companies in 5 metropolitan cities in India. The study used the PLS-SEM to examine the hypotheses.

Findings: The results show a negative relationship between working over office hours and lengthy commutes on work–family balance. This study also found the moderating effect of perceived organizational support on working over office hours and lengthy commutes on the work–family balance. Also, the study revealed that half of the respondents spend three hours, and one-fourth of the respondents spend four and half hours working over office hours and lengthy commutes.

Research Limitations: This research is limited to IT-BPM companies in India. Nevertheless, the findings highlight the factors associated with IT-BPM employee work–family balance, and only two factors were identified.

Practical Implications: This study enhances the work–family balance’s theoretical and practical effects. The results provide a competitive benchmark for IT-BPM managers, administrators, and governing bodies of employee well-being.

Originality: To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to adopt extrinsic variables in work–family border theory to measure the work–family balance of IT-BPM employees.