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The research objective was to check the impact of industry 4 (I4) technologies on environmental sustainability (ENS) with the mediating role of green supply chain management (GSCM) of textile companies in Saudi Arabia.

Data was collected from those respondents who were linked with management and also have knowledge of I4 technologies. The researchers distributed 500 questionnaires among respondents for data collection, 350 questionnaires were received, and used for analysis. The researchers employed the quantitative research approach and cross-sectional research design.

The results indicate that I4 has a positive effect on ENS and GSCM practices except for green purchasing where I4 has an insignificant impact on green purchasing. On the other hand, GSCM practices also significantly mediate between I4 and ENS except for green purchasing which has an insignificant mediating effect.

This study has a great theoretical contribution to literature as it provides strategic insight to managers as well as policymakers. From the perspective of resource-based view, this study is supportive to use I4 technology practices in GSCM. Furthermore, the current research suggests managers to implement I4 technologies and adopt the GSCM practices. These practices should be part of environmental strategies. The implementation of these practices will assist in building a strong reputation and satisfaction of customers and to fulfill the requisites of stakeholders.

The research was conducted with the extended framework of the mediating effect of GSCM between I4 and ENS of Saudi Arabia textile companies which are considered to be a pioneer study in the extant literature.

This study aims to investigate the tourism stakeholders' opinions about developing smart tourism (ST) in the West Bank, Palestine. This research fulfils intriguing gaps in the literature on stakeholders' perceptions and views on developing ST in the West Bank, Palestine.

The research study employed a qualitative methodology using semi-structured interviews with nineteen respondents. All data collected were in April and May 2022.

The findings show that the understanding of ST-related stakeholders in the West Bank is mainly linked to information communication and technology, digitalisation, and online use of technology within the tourism industry. Moreover, the results show the high potential of developing the ST industry in the West Bank. However, this study revealed that challenges could affect the West Bank's development at different levels, such as managerial, technological, awareness, public sector restrictions, infrastructural, financial and political challenges.

This research has some shortcomings. The first restriction of this study was the political restrictions and the checkpoints, which limited the reach of some of the participants who reside in Jerusalem or other cities outside of the West Bank, which delayed the time of the interviews or converted it to be done through a digital platform. Secondly, the sample of this study was small in tourism stakeholders in the West Bank.

To the author's knowledge, this paper is the first on ST from the stakeholders' perspectives. Therefore, this study has set the first step in closing the existing gap in the literature.

Modern renewable energy is crucial for environmental conservation, sustainable economic growth and energy security, especially in developing East African nations that heavily use traditional biomass. Thus, this study aims to examine urbanization and modern renewable energy consumption (MREC) in East African community (EAC) while controlling for gross domestic product (GDP), population growth, foreign direct investment (FDI), industrialization and trade openness (TOP).

This study considers a balanced panel of five EAC countries from 1996 to 2019. Long-run dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) and fully modified ordinary least squares estimations were used to ascertain the relationships while the vector error-correction model was used to ascertain the causal relationship.

Results show that urbanization, FDI, industrialization and TOP positively affect MREC. Whereas population growth and GDP reduce MREC, the effect for GDP is not that significant. The study also found a bidirectional causality between urbanization, FDI, TOP and MREC in the long run.

Investing in modern renewable energy facilities should be a top priority, particularly in cities with expanding populations. The governments of the EAC should endeavor to make MREC affordable among the urban population by creating income-generating activities in the urban centers and sensitizing the urban population to the benefits of using MREC. Also, the government may come up with policies that enhance the establishment of lower prices for modern renewable energy commodities so as to increase their affordability.

MREC is a new concept in the energy consumption literature. Much of the research focuses on renewable energy consumption including the use of traditional biomass which contributes to climate change negatively. Besides, the influence of factors such as urbanization has not been given significant attention. Yet urbanization is identified as a catalyst for MREC.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between board structure and risk-taking, exploring how this association is influenced by advanced technologies in the banking sector.

This study uses a panel sample of 22 Pakistani banks from 2011 to 2018. To test the authors’ hypothesis, the authors use regression analysis with two-way cluster robust standard errors. Further, the authors also check the robustness of the authors’ findings using alternate proxies of board structure and bank risk-taking behavior. To address endogeneity concerns, the authors use the two-stage least square technique.

In the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Pakistani banks’ digitalization is modeled by the presence of Temenos-T24/Oracle as their core banking system (software providing end-to-end operational integration). Its interactional effect with corporate governance is evaluated to implicate informed risk-taking by the board as a result of improved information access and analysis. The authors find that board size has a positive association with risk-taking, and the use of modern technology reshapes this association in the banking sector.

The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, the impact of board structure on bank risk-taking has not been extensively researched in Pakistan – a highly volatile and unpredictable economy. Second, the evaluation of the role of technology on bank risk is being researched for the very first time – a uniqueness of this paper.

The purpose of this study is to check the impact of financial development on green technological innovation (GTI).

The sample size includes the 20-year (2001–2020) financial statistics of six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region countries. To check the proposed relationship, this research uses a series of econometric models including fixed effect, fully modified ordinary least square and robust least square models.

The statistical results imply that financial sector development has a direct significant impact on GTI. A developed financial sector can uplift green technological development by offering more loans to industrial sectors and the import of modern technology. The statistical analysis further reveals the positive impact of gross domestic product (GDP), foreign direct investment inflow and trade volume while the negative impact of resources contribution on GTI.

The findings suggest key policy suggestions regarding the role of the financial sector in promoting GTI in the GCC region.

The novelty of this study lies in its examination of the relationship between FD and GTI in the GCC countries, a region with its unique economic and environmental dynamics.

Inland shipping has been extensively recognised as a sustainable, efficient and good alternative to rail and road modes of transportation. In recent years, various authorities and academic researchers have advocated shifting from road to other sustainable modes like inland waterway transport (IWT) or rail transport. Academic work on modernisation and technological innovations to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of waterborne transportation is becoming apparent as a growing body of literature caused by the need to achieve a sustainable transport system. Thus, it became apparent to explore the research trends on IWT.

A systematic and structured literature review study was employed in this paper to identify the challenges and concepts in modernising inland waterways for freight transportation. The review analysed 94 articles published in 54 journals from six well-known databases between 2010 and 2022.

The key findings of this review are that despite various challenges confronting the sector, there have been successful cases of technological advancement in the industry. The main interest among scholars is improving technical and economic performance, digitalisation, and safety and environmental issues. The review revealed that most of the literature is fragmented despite growing interest from practitioners and academic scholars. Academic research to address the strategic objectives, including strengthening competitiveness (shipbuilding, hydrodynamics, incorporating artificial intelligence into the decision-making process, adopting blockchain technology to ensure transparency and security in the transactions, new technologies for fleets adaptation to climate change, more effective handling, maintenance and rehabilitation technologies), matching growth and changing trade patterns (intermodal solutions and new logistics approaches) are major causes of concerns.

By employing the approach of reviewing previously available literature on IWT review papers, this review complements the existing body of literature in the field of IWT by providing in a single paper a consolidation of recent state-of-the-art research on technological developments and challenges for inland waterways freight transport in the intermodal supply chain that can act as a single resource to keep researchers up to date with the most recent advancements in research in the domain of inland waterway freight transport. Additionally, this review identified gaps in the literature that may inspire new research themes in the field of IWT.

Drawing on the work of Niklas Luhmann, the paper argues that technology can be viewed as a self-referential system which is autonomous from both human beings and other function systems of society. The paper aims to develop a philosophy of technology from the work of Niklas Luhmann. To achieve this aim, it draws upon the systems-theory work of Jacques Ellul, a philosopher of technology who focuses on the autonomous potential of technological evolution.

The paper draws on the work of Niklas Luhmann and Jacques Ellul to explore the theme of autonomous technology and what this means for our thinking about technological issues in the twenty-first century. Insights from these two thinkers and researchers working in the Luhmannian sociological tradition are applied to remote work.

The sociological approach of Luhmann, coupled with Ellul's insights into the autonomous nature of technology, can help us develop a systems theory of technology which takes seriously its irreducibility to human functions.

The paper contributes to the growing sociological literature that thematizes the Luhmannian approach to technology, helping us better understand this phenomenon and think in new ways about what technological autonomy means.

The paper brings together the work of Luhmann, Ellul and contemporary researchers to advance a new understanding of technology and technological communication.

In the new digital age, enterprises are facing an increasing global competition. In this paper, we first examine how Information Technology (IT) can play an important role in giving significant competitive advantage in the modern enterprises. The business value of IT is examined, as well as the limitations and the trade-offs that its applicability faces. Next, we present the basic principles for a successful IT strategy, considering the development of a long-term IT renovation plan, the strategic alignment of IT with the business strategy, and the adoption of an integrated, distributed, and interoperable IT platform. Finally, we examine how a highly functional and efficient IT organization can be developed.

Our methodological approach was based to the answers of the following questions: 1. Does IT still matter? 2. What is the business value created by IT along with the corresponding limitations and trade-offs? 3. How could a successful IT Strategy be build up? 4. How could an effective? T planning aligned with the business strategy be build up? 5. How could a homogenized and distributed corporate IT platform be developed? and finally, 6. How could a high-performance IT-enabled enterprise be build up?

The enterprises in order to succeed in the new digital area need to: 1. synchronize their IT strategy with their business strategy, 2. formulate a long-term IT strategy, 3. adopt IT systems and solutions that are implemented with elasticity, interoperability, distribution, and service-orientation. 4. keep a strategic direction towards the creation of an exceptional organization based on IT.

This paper is original with respect to the integrated approach the overall problem is examined. There is a prototype combined investigation of all perspectives for an effective enforcement of IT in a way that causes acceleration in competitive advantage when conducting business.

This study aims to investigate how early and late adopters of Quality 4.0 (Q4.0) differ in terms of organizational performance.

The authors employed a grounded theory approach for interviewing 15 senior managers from diverse organizational contexts throughout the globe as part of their qualitative research methodology.

The research's findings were analyzed based on four types of performance: operational, financial, environmental and social. It was clear that early adopters of Q4.0 were sustaining superior performance in quality over time, even though their investment was significantly higher than that of late adopters. From a financial viewpoint, it was evident that early adopters had a competitive edge over their rivals compared to late adopters. Late adopters have utilized the notion of the circular economy (CE) more effectively than many early adopters in the context of environmental performance in order to establish a green economy and sustainable development.

Although the results of the interview indicate that Q4.0 is having some positive effects on social performance, in the authors' view, it is still least understood from an empirical standpoint.

The study's findings assist organizations in comprehending the performance differences between Q4.0 early adopters and late adopters.

This paper aims to investigate technostress and information and communication technology (ICT) usage among librarians in Nigerian universities.

Descriptive survey research design was used for the study. Questionnaire was used for data collection. The data generated were analyzed using mean, frequency count and percentage.

A moderate extent of psychological, emotional and physical technostress was found among the librarians. The findings further revealed that technostress among the librarians could be reduced through organizational and technical support and the involvement of librarians in the ICT implementation process. The hypotheses tested revealed that there was a significant relationship between technostress and ICT usage among the librarians; female librarians exhibit a higher extent of technostress than male librarians, and there is no difference in the extent of ICT usage between male and female librarians in Nigerian universities.

Librarians cannot effectively use ICTs if they exhibit technostress.

The work is a creative attempt to know the difference in the extent of technostress and ICT usage among male and female librarians in Nigerian universities.