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This study aims to assess the adequacy of unified theory of acceptance and use of technology-3 (UTAUT-3) model in understanding academician’s adoption to e-Learning, with intent of getting more academicians to accept e-Learning in the Sri Lankan higher education context. Limited validity of the model in an educational context led to this study. The emergence of internet-based technology has changed the way people live, work and study. Technological platforms such as e-Learning have advanced educational systems by enhancing learner experience while benefiting teachers and educators in many ways.

The study used a deductive approach and quantitative methodology, in which a theoretical model was tested using hypotheses to assess causality between study variables. The simple random sampling was used to collect data using a self-administered questionnaire that was sent via Google Forms to targeted respondents. The final sample consisted of 441 academicians who responded to factors of e-Learning adoption on a seven-point Likert scale. Structured equation modelling was used for data analysis.

It was revealed that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, habit and hedonic motivation were significant influences of academician’s adoption to e-Learning. However, social influence and personal innovativeness in IT were not significant predictors of e-Learning.

Due to the scope of the study, the factors that determine e-Learning adoption were limited to UTAUT-3 variables. Additionally, the concept was tested from only an academician’s perspective using quantitative methodology.

The findings are useful to higher education institute (HEI) administration, instructors and teaching assistants, policymakers to design and implement their online strategy as well as to make appropriate decisions in getting e-Learning accepted among a higher number of local HEI academicians. It is recommended for the decision-makers in the HEIs to consider the effect of the above findings in setting plans for higher e-Learning adoption. For instance, staff training catering to specific departmental needs, continuous awareness building, periodic reviewal of e-Learning system, e-Learning champions, introduction of policies and guidelines to encourage trial usage would be useful in this aspect.

Successful use of e-Learning would help HEIs to overcome certain issues that exist in a traditional classroom. e-Learning facilitates education delivery beyond time and space while supporting enhanced performance monitoring and skill development which ultimately improve quality of output and institutional performance.

The study examined the adequacy of UTAUT-3 in understanding the adoptability to e-Learning. Second, it recognised a set of factors that affect the academic staff acceptance of e-Learning in higher education environments. A useful framework is provided to the HEI’s administration to successfully implement e-Learning systems. This study contributes to the growing body of information system literature by examining the validity of UTAUT-3 framework in the use and acceptance of educational technology in a developing country.

Current study theoretically and technically analyzed the empirical literature on Graduate Employability Skills (GES) and aimed to investigate ten research questions: 1) the specific features of the retrieved empirical studies on GES, 2) the trends of empirical scientific production of GES, 3) the most relevant and high-impact sources in the field of GES, 4) clustering the sources through Bradford’s Law of Scattering, 5) the highly cited articles on GES, 6) the most relevant countries on GES, 7) the most pertinent and high-impact authors on GES, 8) authors' productivity through Lotka’s Law of authors’ Scientific Productivity, 9) the trending research avenues for future investigations on GES, and 10) identified research gaps relevant to the field of GES.

The Scopus database was used to extract data, and VOSviewer and Biblioshony tools were used for the study's bibliometric analysis and systematic literature evaluation.

The present study analyzed 864 sources containing 1816 articles from 4378 authors that address GES. Publications on GES were steadily increasing, with a notable upswing beginning in 2010 and reaching a record high of 232 articles in 2019. The UK, Australia, and Malaysia are the top three nations in terms of number of publications and cumulative citations. The thematic map of keywords revealed which themes future researchers need to investigate: work-integrated learning, entrepreneurship, industry 4.0, sustainability, management education, business education, project-based learning, education, curriculum development, learning, and graduate skills.

The present study provides theoretical, practical, and social implications for graduates, the higher education industry, policymakers, the economy, and society.

Though public sector organisations have continuously borrowed human resource management practices from the private sector, there seems to be sparse evidence on the effectiveness of financial rewards for public sector employees, especially in developing countries where pay remains low. Therefore, the objective of this research is to test the effectiveness of financial rewards on the job performance of those working in the Maldives civil service from the perspective of a developing country where public sector pay, especially civil pay, remains comparatively low. Additionally, this study tested the mediating effect of organisational commitment on the relationship between financial rewards and job performance.

A cross-sectional study was conducted using quantitative design methodology, whereby data were collected from 341 employees working in the Maldives civil service and analysed using structural equation modelling.

The findings indicate that financial rewards negatively affect civil service employees’ job performance. However, financial rewards improve organisational commitment, which reduces the negative effects, although the effect sizes of the mediator are not very significant.

The results of this study present critical theoretical and practical contributions to public administration researchers on using financial incentives as a mechanism to boost job performance, particularly in developing countries, where salaries and other benefits remain low. Furthermore, it presents practical recommendations for managing employees in the Maldives and other countries, where the public sector is less developed and budget constraints remain a challenge.

This study aims to offer empirical evidence on how integrated thinking affects the integrated reporting (IR) practice and how integrated thinking originates from board and management involvement, cross-functional integration and integral link between capitals and strategies.

This study is cross-sectional and uses a mixed-method approach. The empirical data for the quantitative approach were collected from the 129 public companies listed on Colombo Stock Exchange in Sri Lanka. The personale responsible for preparing the annual report are selected as the respondents of this study. This study used partial least square modelling to test the hypotheses. The quantitative approach results are triangulated across a qualitative research approach in semi-structural interviews with ten responsible officers of integrated reporting practices.

The central finding of this study is the significant positive relationship between integrated thinking and integrated reporting practice. The qualitative results supported the quantitative findings and show that board and management involvement, cross-functional integration and integral link between capital and strategy enhance the integrated reporting practice. Top management and board management have positive beliefs about the integrated reporting practice; they initiate, encourage, influence, involve and support it. Furthermore, all company departments are involved with the integrated reporting led by the finance department and practice good coordination, communication and collaboration between departments. Moreover, it also evidenced their concern about the linkage between capital and strategy and how they do it in their organisation when practising integrated reporting.

The firms which intend to practice or enhance integrated reporting will be benefited from this study. Hence, this research assists in constructing IT through the direct role of the board and senior leadership, breaking down silos to diffuse IR throughout structures and processes, and concentrating on strategies while managing their capitals and relationships over the long term.

This study provides the initial quantitative empirical evidence on the impact of integrated thinking on integrated reporting practice. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to operationalise both integrated thinking and integrated reporting based on a questionnaire that developed and tested both constructs as higher-order reflective formative and on the relationship between integrated thinking and integrated reporting. The mixed-method approach to examine the relationship between integrated thinking and integrated reporting provides additional insights into the existing literature.

The purpose of this research is to undertake a bibliometric analysis of financial performance research in of higher education sector. The study examines papers over the last 2 decades and performed performance analysis, co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling and scientific mapping.

The study examines 616 documents retrieved from the Scopus database using bibliometric analysis, performance analysis and thematic clustering. The study looked at the scientific productivity of papers, prolific authors, most influencing papers, institutions and nations, keyword cooccurrence, thematic mapping, co-citations and authorship and country collaborations. VOS viewer was employed as a tool in the research to conduct the performance analysis and thematic clustering.

This study delves into the recent advancements in financial performance research within higher education, focusing particularly on the year 2023, characterized by a peak of productivity with 46 significant articles. Notable institutions contributing substantially to this discourse include the University of Sussex (UK), and Ratio Institute Stockholm (Sweden), each referenced 227 times. The United Kingdom has emerged as a leader in financial performance research, amassing 3,850 citations from 92 publications. Key journals driving this conversation include “Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice” and “The British Journal of Political Science.” The most cited study examines the impact of business-university partnerships on innovation and financial outcomes.”

This is the first study that provides a performance analysis and scientific mapping of the financial performance literature in the higher education sector. In addition, this study is the initial one to do a thorough analysis and organized representation of financial performance in the higher education sector, providing an unparalleled understanding of a hitherto uninvestigated area of academic research.

This study aims to contribute to the understanding of the innovation environment of a developing nation through the Triple Helix model, revealing the existing inter-relationships between the three Helixes of Academia–Industry–Government. It sets out to find out the relationship and impact of the three Helixes on the most crucial stage of the innovation process: the commercialisation of patents, and to ascertain if there is a varying impact determined by patent ownership.

This cross-sectional study uses the survey method based on the views expressed by 220 Sri Lankan registered patent holders and categorised by organisational and individual ownership. The sample is drawn from the database of the National Intellectual Property Office of Sri Lanka and patents registered through the Patent Cooperation Treaty, extracted from the World Intellectual Property Organisation Patent Scope database. The survey was carried out in 2019 and limited to patents registered during the period 2010–2014.

The empirical findings indicate weak inter-relationship between Academia support, Industry support and patent commercial success, while the support of the Government Helix is non-significant in the commercial stage. The findings also indicate two different support standards existing in each Helix for the two ownership groups.

The study is limited to a five-year window in a relatively early period in the country’s innovation policy development. The study model is also limited by the non-inclusion of mediators such as government-backed affiliated agencies and academia technical transfer offices which if incorporated would improve the study model and be more reflective of the actual environment and their role as change agents bridging the transition to a hybrid Triple Helix.

The study findings capture the inter-relationships of the Triple Helix existing in a developing country at the most crucial stage of the innovation process. It helps policymakers identify the gaps in each Helix that stands wanting and take measures to rectify them by creating a more favourable National Innovation System. An innovative environment that will facilitate patent holders achieve higher technological transfers and commercial success rates.

The findings disclosure of two different support standards existing in each Helix for the two patent ownership groups poses a challenge for policymakers and challenges the core objective of increasing the commercial success of patents granted. The findings strengthen the need for a more robust support system to be put in place that would empower and facilitate the individual patent owner to increase the share of economic value arising from this underutilised patent group.

This study contributes by furthering the Triple Helix model in a social context and micro-setting by operationalising the theoretical practices. The study also gives insight into each Helix’s interaction and contribution during the most crucial stage of innovation management in a developing economy and its impact on the two categories of patent ownership which is scarce.

This review shows the systematic and bibliometric review of 361 papers on the impact of corporate social responsibility on firm performance from 2013 to 2023. The aim of this review is to research the development trends of women’s financial inclusion and women’s financial literacy during this period. The outcomes show that the issue of women’s financial literacy and women’s financial inclusion is particularly highlighted by scholars since 2019, especially for 2021 and 2022. This review focusses on two aspects of analysis: publish performance and content. In terms of published performance analysis, the publication information of papers is analysed to understand the publication trends and author’s research trends in this decade, and bibliometric maps are generated using VOS-viewer software. The bibliometric map shows that India and the USA are in the middle of the map which shows that the authors from these two nations have strong correlations with other authors. For the content analysis, we used VOS-viewer software to analyse the content of the title and abstract, the outcomes reveal three main streams about financial literacy and financial inclusion for women, especially in rural regions in developing economics and the suggestions for policymakers and government. This review attempts to cover the systematic and bibliometric analysis by presenting findings through analysis of selected papers, which highlights some possible gaps and opportunities in the literature along with a scope of directions for future research.

Emerging research on public administration theory has highlighted the need for public sector managers to become better leaders by inspiring and motivating them to align themselves with their organisation's mission and vision. Therefore, transformational leadership has become increasingly appealing in public administration. This study investigates how transformational leadership affects the job performance of those in the Maldives' civil service. Furthermore, it tests the mediation effect of organisational commitment on the relationship between transformational leadership and the job performance of those working in the Maldives' civil service.

This study adopted a quantitative and cross-sectional design to collect data from 370 employees from different Maldives civil service offices. Data were collected through an online questionnaire, and structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses. The mediating effect was tested using bootstrapping.

The results reveal that transformational leadership did not significantly affect job performance. While a mediation effect was present, the effect size was within a small range.

The results of this study has important implications for the Maldives' civil service from a human resource management perspective and provides insights to policymakers on how to improve leadership in Maldives' civil service institutions. Furthermore, this study contributes significantly to the existing research in understanding the effect of transformational leadership on public sector organisations in Asia and from a developing country's perspective.

The utilisation of market-based approaches (MBAs) than command-control approaches (CCAs) is still at the embryonic stage to stimulate the green behaviour of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing economies. The study aims to elucidate the association between environmental incentives (EIs), green responsiveness (GR) and environmental performance (EP).

A quantitative dominant research design is adopted with qualitative support. The study model is developed by integrating legitimacy theory (LT) and the natural resource-based view (NRBV). The cross-sectional data were gathered from the upper echelon of 395 SMEs in Sri Lanka, and 10 subsequent interviews were conducted. The partial least squares approach of structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to evaluate the hypothesised relationships.

The results found evidence to demonstrate that EIs positively link with GR and EP and GR mediates this association. Further, the study revealed that although MBAs are established, the SME sector is less aware of EIs such as tax concessions, tax reliefs, low interest, soft loans and discounts on eco-materials.

The results provide valuable insights to enhance environmental sustainability. The owners of SMEs should strategically use environmental inducements to overcome resource poverty to engage in green practices. The regulators and policymakers should develop the incentive policies and provide the mechanisms to disseminate the required skills and technologies to SMEs.

According to the authors' best knowledge, this is one of the pioneering empirical studies on EIs, GR and EP with mediating effects in Sri Lanka.

The importance of sustainable public procurement is growing in many countries and industries, including higher education institutions (HEIs) in China. However, in China, the practice of sustainable public procurement is currently limited due to various reasons. This study aims to identify the main challenges faced by Chinese HEIs when it comes to sustainable public procurement. The identification of the challenges encountered by HEIs in sustainable public procurement practices not only has practical significance in terms of improving efficiency, sustainability, competitiveness and guiding policymaking but also has theoretical significance in terms of enriching the knowledge body, facilitating the dissemination of sustainability and supporting international comparative research. To identify these challenges, the study gathered data from a small sample of procurement supervisors, experts and commissioners in HEIs using the Delphi method. The study concludes that Chinese HEIs can address the challenges of sustainable public procurement through measures such as fundraising, technology and equipment upgrading, supply chain optimization, regulatory compliance and raising awareness and providing training.

To pinpoint the challenges of sustainable public procurement faced by HEIs in China, this study began by obtaining data from a small sample of procurement supervisors, experts and commissioners in HEIs who are knowledgeable about the issue through the Delphi method. Secondly, the collected challenge factors were also subjected to a literature review to identify the most common challenges in recent papers published around the world. Thus, it was possible to assess the relationship between the challenges mentioned by researchers in China and other countries.

The main challenges faced by HEIs in China in implementing sustainable public procurement are the focus on economic efficiency, the experience and awareness of procurement staff, policy ambiguity as well as culture, management mechanisms and leadership attitudes in the organizations. The study concludes that Chinese HEIs can effectively overcome the challenges of implementing sustainable public procurement through a variety of measures, including fundraising, technology and equipment upgrading, supply chain optimization, regulatory compliance and awareness raising and training.

Some limitations should be considered in this study. Judging by the sample size, it is clear that the results of the study are limited. Although the number of experts involved in the study is required, caution should be exercised when generalizing the results, as this may not be representative of the entire population. In future studies, the use of a larger sample size could be considered to overcome this problem. Related to this limitation is the uneven geographical distribution of the sample, and this study only considered the situation of HEIs in Jiangsu Province, China, which is not representative of the national region.

The practical significance can be seen in two aspects. First, accurately identifying challenges can help HEIs optimize the implementation of their sustainable purchasing policies, leading to more efficient resource allocation and reduced unnecessary resource consumption. Second, by addressing these challenges, HEIs can better fulfill their social role in sustainable development, contributing to the triple bottom line of the economy, environment and society. Implementing sustainable procurement strategies not only enhances the social image of HEIs but also attracts a broader student base and financial support, ultimately improving their competitive position in the education market. A deeper understanding of these challenges provides policymakers with a basis to develop a more operational and targeted policy framework to support sustainable procurement in HEIs.

This study succeeded in answering two research questions that provide practical implications for public procurement practitioners, researchers and policymakers. Although HEIs in China do not practice sustainable public procurement at a high rate, however, with the spread of sustainability and environmental awareness, more and more HEIs are beginning to realize the importance of sustainability and are gradually taking it into account in their procurement.

The findings of the study not only significantly enrich the existing body of knowledge on sustainable public procurement, but also support the selection of challenge variables that must be addressed first to facilitate the application of sustainable procurement in China’s HEIs.