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This study employs Stein Rokkan's methodological approach to analyse state formation in the Greater Middle East. It develops a conceptual framework distinguishing colonial, populist and democratic pacts, suitable for analysis of state formation and nation-building through to the present period. The framework relies on historical institutionalism. The methodology, however, is Rokkan's. The initial conceptual analysis also specifies differences between European and the Middle Eastern state formation processes. It is followed by a brief and selective discussion of historical preconditions. Next, the method of plotting singular cases into conceptual-typological maps is applied to 20 cases in the Greater Middle East (including Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey). For reasons of space, the empirical analysis is limited to the colonial period (1870s to the end of World War 1). Three typologies are combined into one conceptual-typological map of this period. The vertical left-hand axis provides a composite typology that clarifies cultural-territorial preconditions. The horizontal axis specifies transformations of the region's agrarian class structures since the mid-19th century reforms. The right-hand vertical axis provides a four-layered typology of processes of external intervention. A final section presents selected comparative case reconstructions. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first time such a Rokkan-style conceptual-typological map has been constructed for a non-European region.

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.

Online learning gained ground during the pandemic and has continued to be used in the post-Covid era. Items related to online learning should be included in service quality assessment. The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of service quality, which includes the online learning dimension, on student satisfaction in higher-education in a blended learning environment.

A total of 452 valid questionnaires were collected from business undergraduate students enrolled in public universities in Greece. A modified version of HEdPERF is used to evaluate service quality. Due to the extensive use of online learning, an additional dimension was added to the HEdPERF scale which focuses on online education, a field that has not yet been widely examined. Structural equation modeling is used to examine the relationships between service quality, and student satisfaction.

The research findings verify the six-structure scale of the HEdPERF instrument (non-academic aspects, academic aspects, reputation, access and programs issues and online learning), providing satisfactory results in terms of reliability and validity tests. Service quality dimensions such as academic aspects, access, program issues and online learning are the influential dimensions of student satisfaction in a blended learning context.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous study has expanded traditional service quality instruments to include the dimension of service quality of online learning.

A significant dilemma facing humankind in the present time is environmental degradation. To alleviate the pressure on natural resources, green banking (GB) has been acknowledged as an effective solution. However, creating consumer engagement is still challenging for banks. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of religiosity on GB adoption among Muslim consumers.

The deductive approach was used to explain how GB adoption is affected by the religiosity of the consumer. A total of 332 sample data were collected cross-sectionally from Islamic bank customers in the UAE. Partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) via Smart PLS 4 was used to analyse the data. Five dimensions (i.e. ideological, ritualistic, intellectual, consequential and experimental) were used to measure religiosity which served as the independent variable. Customer intention to adopt GB represents the dependent variable.

The PLS-SEM results revealed that Islamic religiosity affects the adoption of GB among Muslim consumers. Indeed, their religious commitment and beliefs affect the products they intend to adopt and how they intend to do it.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is a pioneering study in the investigation of Islamic religiosity and its influence on the intention to adopt GB. This is a pioneering study in the sense that it proposes a comprehensive religiosity construct using five intertwined dimensions in the literature of GB. This study offers an improved and broader insight assessment of Islamic religiosity, which would help emphasise its significance and utility for business-related decisions by developing an emotionally-driven link between GB practices and the Muslim-oriented consumer market towards increasing the latter’s engagement.

Drawing upon social exchange theory, this research investigates the interplay of corporate philanthropy, environmental marketing strategy, relationship quality, greenwashing, and customer citizenship behavior in the family-owned hotels of an emerging market.

A field survey questionnaire was used to gather the data from 394 hotel customers by randomly selecting three premium family-owned hotels in Lahore: Faletti’s, Avari, and Holiday Inn. The data was analyzed using the structural regression modeling (SRM) technique with the assistance of AMOS version 24.

The results show that corporate philanthropy and environmental marketing strategy positively influence relationship quality, and relationship quality positively influences customer citizenship behavior. Relationship quality partially mediates the association between corporate philanthropy and customer citizenship behavior, but we found that greenwashing does not have a moderating role.

This research has theoretical implications for marketing scholars and practical implications of family-owned hotels in emerging markets.

The study has contributed contextually by collecting a unique dataset from family-owned hotels in an emerging market. Theoretically, we have conceptualized a model through the Social Exchange Theory by recommending relationship quality as a mediator and greenwashing as a moderator.

This study aims to identify research trends and technological evolution in the polymer three-dimensional (3D) printing process that can effectively identify the direction of technological advancement and progress of acceptance in both society and key manufacturing industries.

The Scopus database was used to collect data on polymer 3D printing papers. This study uses bibliometric approach along with network analytic techniques to identify and discuss the most important countries and their scientific collaboration, compares income groups and analyses keyword trends.

It was found that top research production results from heavy investments in research and development. The USA has the highest number of papers among the high-income countries. However, scientific production in the other two income groups is strongly dominated by China and India. Keyword analysis shows that countries with lower incomes in certain areas, such as composite and bioprinting, have fallen behind other groups over time. International collaborations were suggested as mechanisms for those countries to catch up with the current research trends. The evolution of the research field, which started with a focus on 3D printing processes and shifted to printed part designs and their applications, was discussed. The advancement of the research topic suggests that translational research on polymer 3D printing has been led mainly by research production from higher-income countries and countries with large research and development investments.

Previous studies have conducted performance analysis, science mapping and network analysis in the field of 3D printing, but none have focused on global research trends classified by country income. This study has conducted a bibliometric analysis and compared the outputs according to various income levels according to the World Bank classification.