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The social media have enabled companies to reach out to global markets and provided them with the opportunity to customize their strategies and offerings in an unprecedented way. Given the scant empirical evaluation of social media use in the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) business-to-business (B-to-B) context, this paper aims to offer a comprehensive description of the antecedents and consequences of social media use in international B-to-B SMEs and the way in which this use affects their export performance.

This study uses a sample of 277 British B-to-B SMEs and uses positivist research with a quantitative approach, adopting a survey strategy through questionnaires and structural equation modeling.

The results reveal that the use of social media influences export performance through the quality of international business contacts – understanding customers’ views and preferences, brand awareness and knowledge of the competition in various international markets. This study contributes to the emerging literature on B-to-B SMEs digital marketing by determining the mechanism through which B-to-B SMEs may benefit from using the social media in their efforts to export.

Despite the promising potential of the social media, especially for export-oriented companies, very limited attention has hitherto been paid to the relationship between the use of social media and export performance. This study attempts to fill the gap by investigating the extent to which actual use of social media impacts on the performance of exporting firms.

The implementation of marketing concepts to the public sector is still a relatively new topic for researchers and practitioners. Moreover, although branding has become more prominent in the public sector, its role with employees is under explored. Following a review of internal branding and marketing literature in the private sector, the purpose of this study is enrich and contribute to the internal branding concept and the literature by expanding its insightful knowledge beyond that of the Western school of thought to the UAE government sector.

The paper is based on a quantitative survey conducted among 304 public sector employees. These were measured on a five-point Likert scale. To test the model and the hypothesized relationships among the constructs of the model, structural equation modeling was used.

The strength of the relationship between the constructs indicates that features of the suggested internal branding model are crucial to achieving both employee and customer satisfaction in the public sector.

This study provides new theoretical grounds for studying internal branding in the public sector. It also supplies public sector organizations with a number of operative factors that may be essential if they are to provide enhanced satisfaction to public needs. It further contributes to the existing body of knowledge by expanding its knowledge beyond the Western school of thoughts as the study is about a non-Western government culture. Finally, it is probably the first to provide an integrative perspective of internal branding constructs in the public sector.

This study aims to analyze the moderating roles of familiarity, generation and gender on the impacts of coronavirus fear-uncertainty on the destination image and visiting intentions post-COVID-19.

This paper seeks to provide evidence for a research conclusion by conducting a survey of 431 potential travelers of various nationalities who visited Egypt. The data were examined using structural equation modeling with a multigroup analysis and PROCESS MACRO.

The findings indicated that the links between coronavirus fear-uncertainty, the destination image and intention to visit were significantly different from one gender and generation group to another. Moreover, it showed that destination familiarity moderates the negative effects of coronavirus fear-uncertainty on the destination image and intention to visit.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to explore the moderating role of destination familiarity, generation and gender in the effects post-COVID-19 of coronavirus fear-uncertainty on the destination image and travelers’ intention to visit using generational cohort theory and gender schema theory.

This study's goal is to look at how visitors' experiences affect the indirect links between the destination's extrinsic motivations (DEMs) and tourists' intrinsic motives (TIMs), on the one hand, and the perceived destination image (PDI), on the other.

Using structural equation modeling, 613 tourists from different nationalities were used to test the five hypotheses.

The research results revealed that second-order destinations' extrinsic motivations directly impact TIM and PDI. It also showed that tourists' experiences as moderators reduce the direct effect of DEM on PDI for first-time visitors compared to repeat visitors. Moreover, it increases the direct effect of TIM on PDI for repeated visitors.

Destination managers can fix the problems that hurt their reputations and images by hiring police officers in tourist areas and cleaning tourist places. In the same way, destination managers and travel agencies should use AI tools to create social media marketing campaigns focusing on natural and historical monuments. Also, the marketing plans should stress the value for money (for example, lodging, food and attractions’ cost). Finally, destination marketers can make programs for repeat visitors, focusing on DEM and TIM.

This article tries to fill a gap in the research on PDI formation in emerging markets as a modern technique in destination marketing by using the push-intrinsic and pull-extrinsic theories. It also looks at how the tourists' experiences moderate the direct link between DEM, TIM and PDI. Lastly, this study examines how TIM affects a destination's image in emerging markets.

The purpose of this paper is to identify customers’ perceived value constructs of shopping malls from the perspective of Muslim shoppers and to develop items for measuring these constructs, empirically validate the scale, and carry out an initial investigation of the effect of these dimensions on behavioural outcomes.

By means of a multi-dimensional procedure on a sample of 329 Muslim mall shoppers in the UAE, the authors have developed a scale of measurement of these shoppers’ perceived value of malls through grouping 30 value items into eight dimensions.

The study constructed and validated a scale of perceived value of malls taking into consideration the mall shopper’s religion (i.e. Islam). The authors name this new scale Muslim MALLVAL. This scale demonstrates that, like any other shoppers, Muslims who shop in malls assess the shopping experience through both cognitive and affective values in addition to the Islamic value of the mall. The study in addition reveals that the dimensions of Muslim MALLVAL have significant positive influences on behavioural outcomes such as willingness to continue shopping and recommendation of the mall to others.

This study is carried out on Muslim shoppers in the UAE context. However, the authors urge other researchers to replicate the study and get replies from different countries and in particular to use the measures developed in this study to test their robustness.

Muslim mall shoppers evaluate not only the traditional aspects of mall value but also the religious identity related aspects that contribute to the value creation. Therefore, mall developers and managers who target Muslim shoppers (residents and/or tourists) should create and maintain the appropriate shopping environment for Muslim shoppers.

This study is the first to provide an integrative scale for the perceived value of shopping malls from the perspective of Muslim shoppers.

The growing interest in the development of entrepreneurial intention (EI) that has increased the importance of theories that explain and anticipate the tendency among individuals to start a new business. However, most of these theories focus on the relationship between entrepreneurs perceptions and their intention and ignore the cognitive and psychological characteristics that might configure their perceptions. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to integrate the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) with the entrepreneurial event model (EEM) and to extend the combined model to include the personality characteristics of an entrepreneur that might shape the perceptions and intentions.

This study uses a sample of 688 senior university students (Emirati nationals, 91.2 per cent and expatriates, 8.8 per cent) and employs positivist research with a quantitative approach, adopting a survey strategy through questionnaires and structural equation modelling.

The results demonstrate the relevance and robustness of the suggested combined and extended model in the prediction of intention on the part of senior university students to become entrepreneurs (explained variance=73.3 per cent) based on survey data (2017; n = 688).

The main contribution of this paper lies not only in the integration of the TPB and the EEM, but also in extending the two theories on which it is based through adding entrepreneurial personality characteristics and an explanation of the mechanism through which entrepreneurial perceptions and EI develop.

The growing popularity of mobile technology has led governments across the world to develop mobile business models and encouraged the transition from the electronic government (e-government) to the mobile government (m-government). However, only a small amount of data is available regarding m-government implementation in developing countries and users’ behavioural intentions (BIs) with respect to the utilization of such services. To address this issue, this study attempts to identify factors that affect m-government acceptance among citizens of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This study aims to examine the relationships between m-government service characteristics and m-government technology characteristics by analysing their perceived ease-of-use, perceived usefulness, user attitudes towards m-government usage and corresponding BIs with respect to utilization of m-government services.

This study is based on a quantitative survey conducted among 326 users of m-government services in the UAE. The responses were tabulated on a five-point Likert scale. Structural equation modelling was used to evaluate the performance of the proposed model and verify the hypothesized relationships between its constructs.

Overall, the research findings indicate that: users’ intention to use m-government applications has three determinants – attitude towards m-government use, m-government ease of use and m-government usefulness; m-government usefulness and ease of use have a significant influence on user attitudes towards m-government; and perceived ease of use of the service, currency of the services, the accuracy of the provided information, the security concerns associated with the utilization of the m-government services, trust in the m-government services and the risks perceived in using the m-Government service are antecedents of users’ perceptions of the m-government services.

This study has improved our understanding of the critical mobile technology factors that are needed to improve user acceptance of m-government services. The study presents important implications for both theory and practice.

The main purposes of this article are twofold: (1) to investigate the unexplored connections among destination gender personality, destination stereotypes, brand attachment and destination brand love and (2) to examine the moderating role of destination involvement in the association between destination stereotypes and destination brand attachment (DBA).

The conceptual model is evaluated using qualitative methods (i.e. three focus groups, six academic experts and a pilot study). In addition, using an empirical study with 610 international travelers who visited Egypt selected by systematic random sampling, 8 hypotheses were analyzed and tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) by AMOS 23, confirmatory factor analyses and exploratory factor analyses.

The study’s results suggest that destination gender plays a vital role in enhancing stereotypes, stereotypes positively affect attachment and DBA positively affects destination brand love. Finally, the results show that destination involvement moderates the dual influence of the warmth and competence of stereotypes on destination attachment.

The research supports the contention that social perception mechanisms are crucial in destination brand perception. It offers new understandings of the association between customers' destination brand perceptions and their responses to destinations.

This paper contributes to the travel literature by analyzing a novel model of destination gender personality, stereotypes, DBA and destination brand love using both social role (SR) theory and a stereotype content model (SCM). Besides attempting this task, it explores the moderating role of destination involvement in the association between stereotypes and destination attachment using the elaboration likelihood model.

The adoption of smart classroom is increasing in higher education around the world. Yet, factors affecting smart classroom adoption have not been sufficiently explored. Based on the innovation diffusion theory and external pressures, the present study developed a model to investigate the main drivers of smart classroom adoption.

SEM-AMOS was used to analyse the data collected from a sample of 1,208 educators.

The findings revealed that innovation diffusion theory and external pressures provide an appropriate model for understanding smart classroom adoption.

The findings offer important implications for higher education institutions, IT managers, and are likely to stimulate further research in the area of smart classrooms.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that used innovation diffusion theory external pressures to understanding smart classroom adoption.

This research aims to understand the determinants of consumers' behaviour and motivations to buy taboo items online. Two theoretical lenses, theories of psychological reactance and system justification, are invoked to frame the role of online shopping in shaping consumer behaviour in taboo markets.

A naturalistic inquiry paradigm was used to test a sample of 34 Saudi women who were buying taboo products online.

The determinant of such behaviour is based on differences in understanding the ritual restrictions between people, their society and their country. The four principal attitudes towards restrictions are justifying, accepting, rejecting and reacting. These attitudes frame five motivations: satisfying the restriction, to be unique, but aligned with social norms; breaking social norms; aligning one's self-image to liberal societies; and joy in challenging legal restrictions. The motives for online shopping are justification/utilitarian, to accommodate other restrictions in going to local markets; and reactance hedonic, to break restrictions. These motivations create seven different patterns of online shopping behaviour.

This research contributes to the literature by presenting an alternative perspective on online shopping motivations for taboo products. Furthermore, this research calls for a new socio-psychological theory for understanding the role of technology in influencing consumer behaviour in restrictive societies.