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Using the Heaviside operator, a single partial differential equation is obtained for the space‐time variation of the pore pressure in two adjacent soil layers undergoing simultaneous consolidation. A closed form expression for the solution to the problem is given as a generalized Fourier series. The coordinate functions of the series are the eigenfunctions of the composite medium obtained computationally through the application of the extended Galerkin method.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the state of the art on publications related to “Business Marketing” over the past 10 years (2010–2020) and available in the SCOPUS database.

In this research, a bibliometric study on entrepreneurial marketing (EM) was performed. The articles were selected from the SCOPUS database and dated from January 1, 2010 to July 11, 2020.

In total, 124 articles on the area of business management were identified, they are written in English. Through the systematization of these articles, it was found that the majority of the publications and citations about EM are from the year 2020 (378 articles), respectively, with 17 citations. The Journal of Research in Marketing and Entrepreneurship was the most published on the subject and obtained the highest number of citations over the past 10 years. The authors that obtained the highest number of citations were: Jones and Rowley (2011b) with 101 citations and Mort et al. (2012) with 71 citations. It was also possible to identify four clusters: “entrepreneurial orientation”; “customer strategy”; “market orientation” and “innovative entrepreneurship and marketing.”

This paper reinforces the coherence and scientific structure of the current literature. The systematization of the concepts we present can be used by managers to define strategies and policies in EM planning.

This research gives special emphasis to the publications over the past 10 years, related to the management area and focused on the term “Entrepreneurship Marketing,” aiming to identify publication trends. Another innovation from this research is the usage of a single database, for the case SCOPUS. Moreover, the authors also reveal a current agenda with future lines of research in EM, which will serve as a starting point to prepare other studies in this area.

The study analysed the factors influencing real estate firms' (REFs) decision to adopt virtual reality (VR) technology using the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method. This was done to enhance the practice of real estate agency in Nigeria.

Data were elicited from eight real estate experts. These experts were heads of the agency department of firms that had been in existence for a minimum of five years in the Lagos property market. The data analysed in this study were collected with the aid of a questionnaire.

The result revealed that use intention was influenced by performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation, price value and UB. Also, facilitating conditions, habit and use intention did not influence use behaviour. Overall, six constructs, which include price value (R_i − C_j value = 0.1284), use behaviour (R_i − C_j value = 0.0666), social influence (R_i − C_j value = 0.0583), facilitating conditions (R_i − C_j value = 0.0323), performance expectancy (R_i − C_j value = 0.0196) and effort expectancy (R_i − C_j value = 0.0116), were significant predictors of the factors influencing the decision of REFs to adopt VR. Of these constructs, the R_i − C_j values indicated that price value had the highest causative influence.

The result of this study will bring REFs to the consciousness of the factors that could affect their adoption of VR technology. This study will also assist the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers in appropriately enlightening REFs on the integration of VR technology into the agency practice especially at this time when all health protocols and guidelines need to be observed to help flatten the curve of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This study is the first to have an insight into the analysis of the factors influencing REFs' decision to adopt VR technology using the DEMATEL method.

This study aims to analyse the criteria used in measuring the determinants of the adoption of virtual reality (VR) technology in real estate agency practice in Lagos, with a view to providing information with which the practice can be enhanced.

The data for the study were elicited using a questionnaire which was administered to eight real estate firms (REFs). The firms were those that have been operating in Lagos for at least five years, and the data collected were analysed using the DEMATEL method.

The findings revealed that perceived utility and relative advantage were the most important criteria for determining REFs' performance expectancy with VR technology. The two most important criteria to measure effort expectancy were “perceived ease of use” and complexity. “Subjective norms” was the most important criterion for measuring social influence, while “perceived behavioural control” was the most important criterion to measure facilitating conditions. Under “price value”, output quality was the only significant criterion. Finally, the frequency of use, the actual number of use and the amount of time spent utilising the technology were significant for measuring the REFs' use behaviour.

The study offers insights into the criteria that can assist REFs in integrating VR technology into real estate agency practice. The results are also helpful to the Nigerian real estate professional bodies to organise workshop programmes for REFs on the use of VR technology and other disruptive technologies. The results will also serve as a guide for REFs to gain a competitive advantage in this trying time of pandemic and help them measure up to global standards and the expectations of their clients.

Before this study, efforts have not been made to study the criteria for measuring the determinants of VR technology adoption in the Nigerian real estate agency practice.

The purpose of this paper is to study current practices in adopting blockchain technology amongst export companies in West Sweden and to capture their CEOs’ knowledge of and attitudes towards blockchains.

Factors enabling or hindering the adoption of blockchains were identified from a comprehensive literature review and a survey of 72 chief executive officers (CEOs) of export-oriented firms in West Sweden, all with turnovers exceeding €2m, regarding their knowledge of and attitudes towards blockchains.

Blockchain technology is not currently perceived to provide benefits that would outweigh the costs of introducing it into West Sweden’s export firms. Nevertheless, the findings suggest that such technology, though currently too immature to meet today’s industrial requirements, could experience more widespread use if certain key factors (i.e. lower cost, traceability, improved security or trustworthiness and new blockchain-enabled business models) are prioritised.

Answered by 72 CEOs, the survey achieved a response rate of 6%, meaning that the findings are only exploratory. Even so, they offer new insights into CEOs’ attitudes towards blockchain technology.

The CEOs reported comparatively limited knowledge of and experience with implementing blockchains, the lack of which has hampered their large-scale implementation in multi-actor supply chains.

Negative sentiment amongst CEOs towards blockchain technology may lower on-the-job satisfaction amongst tech personnel aspiring to develop and implement blockchain applications in their firms.

Knowledge of and attitudes towards blockchain technology amongst top-level managers, as well as about factors enabling or hindering its adoption, guide managers in crafting strategies for implementing blockchains in their organisations and maximising the benefits therein. Unlike past studies focussing on technological aspects or views of experts and middle-management, the study was designed to capture the views of CEOs.

Undergraduates use electronic library resources for academic activities. However, literature has revealed that undergraduates’ use of electronic library resources is low in Nigeria owing to attitude, computer literacy and information retrieval skills, while little attention was given to computer self-efficacy. This paper aims to examine computer self-efficacy as a predictor of undergraduates’ use of electronic library resources in federal universities in south-west Nigeria.

The descriptive survey research design was adopted. Multi-stage sampling method was used to select 1,526 undergraduates from the population size of 30,516 from six federal universities in south-west Nigeria in four faculties (Arts, Engineering/ Technology, Science and Social sciences) and three departments from each of the faculties (English, History and Philosophy; Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Civil Engineering and Mechanical Engineering: Economics, Sociology and Psychology). Data were collected using a questionnaire and were analysed using descriptive statistics, mean and standard deviation, Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation, hierarchical and regression analyses at 0.05 level of significance.

There was a significant relationship between computer self-efficacy and use of electronic library resources (r = 0.13, p < 0.05). The result of the analysis showed that computer self-efficacy influenced undergraduates’ use of electronic library resources in federal universities in south-west Nigeria.

The data for the research were obtained from undergraduates in the selected faculties in the six federal universities except for two faculties which did not have some departments that were common to the selected faculties.

The findings indicated that computer self-efficacy improves the use of electronic library resources for academic purposes. It therefore encourages the library management to provide the necessary support and training for the undergraduates to acquire the technical skills required for the acquisition of computer self-efficacy. This has greater influence on undergraduates’ ability to use the computer maximally to access electronic library resources for academic purposes.

It will improve the undergraduates’ use of electronic library resources for academic purposes. This implies that the undergraduates will have access to information around the world that could be useful for development in and around their locality which will become easily accessible. Also, in this era of computer, it will encourage reading culture among undergraduates. This could inform policymakers on the need to provide more electronic library resources for libraries.

The study provides original data on computer self-efficacy as a predictor of undergraduates’ use of electronic library resources in federal universities in south-west Nigeria. This can provide valuable indicator for library managements considering enhanced utilisation of electronic library resources.

Blockchain technology is spreading its roots and growing rapidly. With the advancement of blockchain technology, government organizations are focusing toward adopting blockchain technology. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that affect the adoption of blockchain technology and provide a conceptual framework to adopt blockchain technology in government organizations.

To answer the research questions, this study has used systematic literature review (SLR). For achieving the quality and transparent process, this study has applied the PRISMA framework in the SLR.

With the help of SLR, this study has identified 72 factors that influence the adoption of blockchain technology. After critically examining the factors, this study has developed the conceptual framework for the adoption of blockchain technology in government organizations with four factors of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model and four additional factors, i.e. facilitating conditions, social influence, effort expectancy, performance expectancy, trust, transparency, cost and security.

To perform SLR, this study has used two databases: Web of Science and Google Scholar; future studies can consider other databases. This study has provided the framework but not validated it; future studies can use structural equation modeling and artificial neural network to validate the framework.

This study helps to provide insights about blockchain technology and help government and policymakers to take decisions for the adoption of blockchain technology and in determining the future action plan.

Few studies are available in the literature that have used SLR to identify blockchain technology adoption in government organizations.

The continuous presence and intensity of the Internet of things (IoT) in our lives and the risk of security breaches in traditional transactional and financial platforms are the major cause of personal and organizational data losses. Blockchain emerges as a promised technology to ensure higher levels of data encryption and security. Thus, this study aims to develop a systematic literature review analyzing the previous literature and to purpose of a framework to better understand the process of blockchain security.

The 75 articles reviewed were obtained through the Scopus database and a bibliographic-coupling analysis was developed to identify the main themes of this research area, via VOSviewer software.

The results enable the categorization of the existing literature revealing four clusters: 1) feasibility, 2) fintech and cryptocurrency, 3) data trust and share and 4) applicability. Blockchain technology is still in its early stage of development and counting on researchers in security and cryptography to take it further to new highs, to allow its applicability to different areas and in long-term scenarios.

This systematic literature creates a base to reduce the blockchain security literature gap. In addition, it provides a framework that enables the scientific community to access the main subjects discussed and the articulation between concepts. Furthermore, it enhances the state-of-the-art literature on blockchain security and proposes a future research agenda.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the development of institutional repositories (IR) in tertiary institution libraries in Nigeria.

The study adopted a survey research method. Online questionnaire and IR site investigation methods were used to collect data from 25 university libraries in Nigeria.

The study revealed that only 25 (14.7%) universities out of the 170 universities in Nigeria have successfully developed IRs and registered their presence in OpenDOAR. Other tertiary institutions such as Polytechnics and Colleges of Education investigated in Nigeria are yet to develop IRs. Contents such as theses and dissertations, conference proceedings and journal articles ranked highest being the most popular contents in the various IRs. The results showed that the development of IR saves space in the library, increases readership, increases access to local contents, minimizes damage to the original material, facilitates the dissemination of scholarly research and assists in globalization of Nigerian research findings. The IRs site investigation revealed that only few IRs have clearly defined access policy, content policy, submission policy and digital preservation policy. The study identified challenges such as inadequate facilities, unstable internet connectivity, lack of fund, irregular power supply, challenge of collecting materials for the IR, lack of skilled ICT personnel, copyright issues and absence of IR policies.

The results from the study will provide important data and insight into the development of institutional repositories in tertiary institution libraries in Nigeria, and generate suggestions for University Librarians, College Librarians, Polytechnic Librarians, tertiary institutions management and policy makers for developing institutional repositories in Nigeria and other developing countries.

The study investigated IR development in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The findings will inform other tertiary institutions in developing countries that the development of IR provides an opportunity for the visibility of local contents emanating from institutions and make them see the reason to embrace this laudable development.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the main determinants logistical factors that have an impact on the adoption of cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing economies. By adopting the diffusion of innovation, technological, organizational and environmental model as a theoretical framework, the 14 factors examined in this study are as follows: relative advantage (RA), compatibility, complexity, value creation, technology readiness (TR), security concerns, technical barriers, top management support (TMS), enterprise readiness (ER), enterprise size (ES), enterprise status, competitive advantage, government support and infrastructure/telecommunication.

Data were collected from 131 respondents’ senior executives and IT managers in SMEs in developing economies (Jordan, Lebanon, King Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Emirates, Egypt, Oman, Kuwait and Turkey). A web-based survey questionnaire was used for data collection process. The research framework and the derived hypotheses were tested by logistic regression analysis.

The findings indicate that compatibility, TR, technical barriers, TMS, ER, ES and competitive pressure have a significant effect on the adoption of cloud ERP. This conclusion can be utilized in enhancing the strategies for approaching ERP cloud by pinpointing the reasons why some SMEs choose to adopt this technology, while others still do not go forward with this.

This study provides an overview and empirically shows the main determinants logistical factors that might face SMEs in the developing economies. The findings also help SMEs consider their information technologies investments when they think to adopt cloud ERP.