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This paper aims to discuss the physical and thermal properties of the three-dimensional (3D) printing natural composite filament, as well as the tensile behaviour of the printed composites to get an insight of its possibility to be used as an ankle–foot orthosis (AFO) material.

Physical test that was conducted includes scanning electron microscopy analysis, thermogravimetric/differential scanning calorimetry analysis as well as the effect of fibre load after extrusion on the filament morphology. Tensile test was conducted with different amounts of fibre loads (0, 3, 5 and 7 Wt.%) on the printed specimens.

There is an increment of strength as the fibre load is increased to 3 Wt.%; however, it decreases significantly as it is increased to 5 and 7 Wt.% because of the presence of voids. It also shows that the extrusion temperature severely affects the structure of the filaments, which will then affect the strength of the printed composites. Based on the results, it is possible to use kenaf/polylactic acid (PLA) filament to print out AFO as long as the filament production and printing process are being controlled properly.

The unique aspect of this paper is the investigation of kenaf/PLA filament as a material for 3D printing, as well as its material consideration for AFO manufacturing. This paper also studies the effect of extrusion temperature on the morphological structure of the filament and its effect on the tensile properties of the printed kenaf/PLA specimen.

The earth needs to go green as it clarifies that humans should adopt a sustainable lifestyle that will be friendly to the environment and society. The emerging stream of academic literature on “go green” adds a new perspective to the deep-rooted conception of entrepreneurship. The objective of green entrepreneurship is to follow the traditional concepts of entrepreneurship but also brings the additional potential for society and the environment. The present paper is designed to study the impact of personality traits and university green entrepreneurial support on green entrepreneurial intentions along with the moderating role of environmental values.

The data are collected by using the survey method, and the five-point Likert scale is used for this purpose. The statistical techniques applied to the dataset were confirmatory factor analysis and partial least square structural equation modeling.

The results revealed that personality traits are positively and significantly associated with green entrepreneurial intention, but risk-averse students depict insignificant results towards green entrepreneurial intention. Also, university green entrepreneurial support results in positive green entrepreneurial intention. Environmental values also strengthen the association.

Previously, researchers emphasized the entrepreneurial intentions for the sake of improving the economy, decreasing unemployment and promoting small ventures, but none focused on the green aspects of entrepreneurship. To date, we still lack knowledge regarding students' green entrepreneurial intentions and how personality traits and green support affect the intention. The focus of the present study is to sustain nature and ecosystems through green entrepreneurship by providing directions and economic and noneconomic gains for investors, entrepreneurs, students, universities and societies.

An individual’s standard of living is profoundly affected by industrialization and technology’s continuous revolution. At present, the environment is uncontrollable and global warming is increasing. Therefore, there is a need to protect the earth immediately as the lives of all creatures are at risk. The purpose of this paper is to determine the factors related to green purchase behavior (GPB) by incorporating religious values (RGV) as a moderator. Moreover, the moderating role of RGV has been incorporated so that the importance of RGV in the life of millennials can be examined.

Smart partial least square (PLS) has been used for data analysis, and PLS-structural equation modeling has been used to assess measurement and structural models.

The findings reveal that environmental concern, environmental knowledge and green perceived value positively and significantly affect attitude and subjective norm (SN). Moreover, attitudes toward the purchase of green products and SNs also show a positive and significant relationship with green purchase intention (GPI). In addition, GPI is also positively and significantly associated with GPB. However, green brand knowledge portrays a positive but insignificant relationship with attitude and SN. Finally, RGV does not strengthen the relationship between intention and behavior.

Religion is a strong predictor of individual behavior as people are emotionally connected with Islam’s teachings. Therefore, the study provides a unique contribution by adding RGV as a moderator in the model of TRA. Also, the authors targeted the specific generation, i.e. millennials, so that millennials’ behavior can be identified as it covers Pakistan’s large population. Also, millennials are the people who are more involved in decision-making.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the relationship between bankers’ perspectives and their pro-green banking behaviors (i.e. intentions). Specifically, how do bankers’ perspectives on environmental concerns, environmental normative structure and green technology affect their intentions toward G-banking activities?

A theoretical framework of the theory of bounded rational planned behavior (TBRPB) as its foundation was established. Using measurement scales to measure different aspects of environmental concern, environmental normative structure, green technology, attitudes, perceived behavioral control and subjective norms, a survey instrument was developed to examine the various associations implied by the model of TBRPB. Data were collected from the bankers of selected commercial banks in Bangladesh following the random sampling procedure. The data were analyzed using the partial least square structural equation modeling technique.

Findings indicate that all of the predictors appear to be robust in predicting the G-banking intention of the sampled bankers in Bangladesh. The results also show that attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control have significant mediating effects toward bankers’ bounded rational G-banking intention.

There are a few limitations in the study. First, the study considers environmental concerns as an antecedent of the attitude of bankers toward G-banking activities. Future studies can explore other variables related to environmental problems to study G-banking adoption and practices. Second, this study only considers the private conventional bankers as respondents to the survey to assess G-baking intention. In the future, other types of bankers, such as Islamic bankers and public banks’ bankers could be included in the survey to explore G-banking practices. Finally, this research has been done in a developing country-context.

In this study, environmental concerns of bankers appeared to be highly significant predictors to influence their attitudes toward bounded rational G-banking intention. Similarly, the social normative structure also appears to be a robust antecedent of subjective norms to influence bounded rational G-banking intention of respondent bankers. Finally, green technology or bakers’ personal and skill-related ability to control bounded rational G-banking intention also appeared to be a strongly significant predictor of green banking activities. All this evidence implies that respondent bankers in the sample responded positively to provide their positive intention toward G-banking activities based on their environmental concern.

Important social implication of the current study is G-banking practices can help reduce carbon emissions and other pollutants which would enrich overall environmental sustainability and ecological conditions.

Few studies are directed on G-banking perspective in Bangladesh. This research is one of the empirical studies which will certainly add values for the clients, institutions and policymakers in banking paradigm.

In the article, analytical model of first-order shear deformation (FSDT) beams made of jute–epoxy is presented to study the low-velocity impact response.

The nonlinear Hertz contact law is applied to identify the contact between projectile and beam. The energy method, Lagrange's equations and Ritz method are applied to derive the nonlinear governing equation of the beam and impactor-associated boundary condition. The motion equations are then solved simultaneously by the Runge–Kutta fourth-order method.

Also, a comparison is performed to validate the model predictions. The contact force and beam indentation histories of the jute–epoxy simply supported beam under spherical impactor with different radius and initial velocity are investigated in detail. It is found that in response to impactor radius increase, the utilization of the contact force law has resulted in a same increasing trend of peak contact force, impact duration and beam indentation, while in response to impactor initial velocity increase, the maximum contact force and beam indentation increase while impact time has vice versa trend.

This paper fulfills an identified need to study how jute–epoxy beam behavior with simply supported boundary conditions under low-velocity impact can be enabled.

By taking the theory of entrepreneurial legacy as the baseline, this study explores the various aspects of succession planning in indigenous family businesses especially the role of female family members in succession and conflicts in family businesses.

The study is qualitative in nature and adopts narrative inquiry to explore the aspects of succession planning. In doing so, the study utilizes an in-depth interviewing technique with nine participants who run their family-owned firms which are mostly in their second or third generation for analysis.

The findings are concurrent with the literature that indicates a lack of strategic succession planning although ordinary or natural succession does occur in some firms. The study also reports a lack of consideration for female members in succession, daughters in particular, for traditional family firms (FFs) in contrast to entrepreneurial FFs.

The study has many implications for family-owned firms in Pakistan as they need to align their family business with the theory of entrepreneurial legacy and its three strategic activities in order to ensure the longevity of their business.

Exploring how succession planning takes place in family indigenous family businesses and what is the role of female family members in succession and conflicts in family businesses are original contributions of this study.

This study aims to investigate the impact of trust in the metaverse on the Islamic banking sector, particularly in facilitating market success. Additionally, it seeks to explore the relationship between metaverse-driven brand image, product features, service quality and overall performance in the market.

Data were collected from 187 participants in Jordan, with the SmartPLS software used to test the hypotheses.

The findings reveal a significant impact of metaverse-enhanced brand image, product features and service quality on Islamic banking market performance. Furthermore, customer trust in the metaverse plays a significant role in shaping the relationship between product features, service quality and Islamic banking market performance.

The study’s practical implications still suggest the need for a more holistic metaverse-driven approach. Investing in service quality initiatives alone may not adequately build and sustain customer trust in the metaverse. Instead, transparent communication on ethical practices in the metaverse is required to reinforce trust and magnify the positive influence of superior service quality in the metaverse.

Bullying negatively affects victims’ mental health and has been shown to be associated with anxiety and depression. Moreover, many studies have reported the prevalence of mistreatment among medical students (MS), interns and junior physicians. However, there are limited studies on bullying in the Middle East, and no studies on higher education in Bahrain. The authors’ aim was to investigate and compare the prevalence of bullying between MS at a major public university and non-medical students (NMS) at a private university in Bahrain. The authors also sought to explore the associations between bullying, depression and anxiety.

The authors conducted a survey-based cross-sectional study from October 1 to December 31, 2018, using convenient sampling method. A total of 300 students (150 MS and 150 NMS) participated in the study by answering a questionnaire that explored exposure to different types of bullying. In addition, standard anxiety and depression instruments were distributed to students.

The results showed that MS were more exposed to bullying than NMS, with a significant number (41%) reporting mistreatment from multiple sources, including teachers, consultants and peers. Furthermore, the authors found that bullying was significantly correlated with psychological health, anxiety and depression.

There are limited studies on bullying in the Middle East and no studies on the topic of higher education in Bahrain. Furthermore, the learning environment of tertiary education institutions can be improved by addressing the concerns associated with bullying identified in this study.

This empirical paper is an endeavor to explore the relationship between social media advertising (SMA) and customers' purchase intention (CPI) in three South Asian countries. SMA was further divided into three relevant dimensions: perceived relevance (PR), perceived informativeness (PI) and perceived credibility (PC). Furthermore, the authors incorporated a single mediator: customers' brand consciousness (CBC) to test the mediating effects on the direct relationships.

The authors purposively selected 1937 fashion-conscious individuals based on a cross-sectional survey design. The authors applied SPSS 25 for explanatory statistics and structural equation modeling (SEM) (through AMOS 25) for testing the hypothesized relationships.

Based on the responses and the application of statistical measures, the authors revealed that all of the three dimensions of SMA have significant positive relationships with CPI. CBC is also significantly and positively related to CPI. Regarding the mediating effects, CBC was identified to have full mediation effects on the relationships between PR and CPI and PI and CPI. On the contrary, the same variable was found to have partial mediation on the relationship between PC and CPI.

South Asia is a growing business hub and the largest consumer market in terms of population. This empirical study was undertaken to reveal the role of SMA on CPI in the three highly populated South Asian countries, which is rare in academia. The outcomes of this empirical study are expected to be useful for further research attempts regarding SMA and consumer behavior. Businesses and policymakers are also expected to benefit from formulating SMA-related strategies to retain present buyers as well as attract the prospective ones.

The objective of this chapter is to study the symmetric and asymmetric impact of macroeconomic variables on the Indian stock prices (SPs) of the Bombay Stock Exchange index. This chapter further investigates whether the asymmetric impact of macroeconomic variables on SP is due to the impact of any tail events like the global financial recession. An autoregressive distribution lag and non-autoregressive distribution lag approach is used for the full sample covering the period from January 2000 to June 2019 and later this sample is further subdivided into before and after the crisis period to study the variations in result. The findings show that macroeconomic variables and SP have a symmetric relation in the long run whereas an asymmetric relationship in the short run when the whole sample is analyzed. However when data are segregated into “before and after” crisis period this relationship turns to be asymmetric in long run too, meaning that in the long run, the negative and positive changes in a macroeconomic variable do not affect SPs similarly.