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This paper aims to investigate if perceived security, trust and perceived privacy affect both perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Also, the study explores if trust, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use influence consumers’ intentions to use the e-payment system which is supported by testing the moderation effect of gender on the intention to use such systems in the higher education institutes.

In total, 850 participants from United Arab Emirates (UAE) universities have filled an online questionnaire prepared for these aims. The survey instrument is composed of 22 items. The primary data was used to test the study model, proposed constructs and the study hypotheses using the Smart PLS Software.

The research confirmed that perceived security, trust and perceived privacy affect both perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Also, the study found that trust, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use have anticipated the significance of consumers’ intention to use e-payment system which is found also moderated by gender. Research outcomes indicated an important contribution towards the acceptance of e-payment systems and the common design of e-commerce systems.

Research outcomes have indicated an important contribution toward the acceptance of e-payment systems and the common design of e-commerce systems. Additionally, this study helped in increasing the reader’s understanding of various aspects of e-commerce, specifically consumers’ trust and privacy protection which consequently allows the online sellers to formulate appropriate strategies and actions imperative to serve the online purchasers and target the internet users.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the educational and employment opportunities of Syrian youth. It examines findings from a number of nation‐wide surveys of Syrian youth to investigate the educational and labor market conditions Syrian youth face amidst economic and social changes.

The study summarizes numerous nation‐wide surveys conducted by Syrian and foreign organizations concerning the employment and educational opportunities of Syrian youth and their attitudes to their future opportunities and other social and economic issues.

The study finds that class gender and regional background significantly impact the educational and employment opportunities available to Syrian youth. It also finds that Syrian youth express real concerns about their living conditions and future opportunities.

The study argues that future research on Syrian youth must disaggregate findings by background and demographic characteristics. It also argues that more research is needed to understand how youth perceive recent economic and employment changes, including an emphasis on identifying risk factors for marginalization and social and economic exclusion.

This study summarizes findings from the newest and most comprehensive nation‐wide surveys on youth in Syria. Such is often available in Arabic, in hard copy, and to researchers in Syria only. Scholars of the contemporary Middle East and policymakers directly invested in the fates of Syrian youth have a very real need for detailed and current research on youth in Syria.

The purpose of this paper is to answer the following question: what motivates refugees to create their own businesses in a developing country, and how do they go about it?

A quantitative study was conducted before Syrian refugees in main camps in Lebanon. The self-administrated survey was translated into the Arabic language to fit the respondents understanding of the questions asked and answers choices. Closed questions with nominal ratio and Likert scales were used to gather the primary data in the line of the study of Wauters and Lambrecht. The data were analysed with a logistic regression analysis under SPSS.

The findings show that 71 per cent of Syrian refugees seem to have a willingness to start a new business in Lebanon. The respondents are mostly young, with 62 per cent being between the ages of 18 and 35. Most of them are men (66.67 per cent) against 33.33 per cent of women. 60 per cent have already been entrepreneurs, and they are mostly motivated by earning a living but in the sector they used to work in before in their home country. Finally, the obstacles seem to be linked to financial and administrative issues, but also to the local policies. However, the fact that they share some cultural values with Lebanese such as the language or food, allow them to integrate easier and to create social bonds.

The research is limited by the fact that the authors cannot generalise the findings since the Lebanese environment is very different from other countries’ environment. Besides, the Syrian refugees share already a lot of values and lifestyle with Lebanese. So, the authors cannot transpose their case to other ethnic population. Also, the study is limited by the lack of a gender statement and the link between the education level and the decision of creating a new business.

The authors propose some recommendations to the Lebanese Government and NGOs in order to facilitate and support the entrepreneurship actions of refugees shortly after they arrive to Lebanon.

This paper confirms the importance of social ties in encouraging entrepreneurship in the case of refugees.

In this paper, the authors make four contributions to the academic debate: first, the authors studied the entrepreneurial motivations of refugees in a middle-eastern developing country while the other studies have focussed upon the adaptation of such individuals in a western and developed environment. Second, the refugees are motivated by pull and push factors at once as the authors discussed in the precedent section. Third, although adaptation to the Lebanese culture is easier, resilience is nevertheless needed due to the Lebanese Government’s policies, which forbid refugees to work in the country. Fourth, with regard to migration studies in general, this paper stands half way between the various studies conducted on ethnic entrepreneurship, immigrant entrepreneurship and refugees. Indeed, the authors brought together many concepts such as social bonds, social capital, culture, political environment, and the service industry. On the managerial level, the findings allow the institutions and the government to target those refugees who show an appetence to entrepreneurship to stimulate their action, shortly after arriving in Lebanon, as their entrepreneurial intent decreases with the time they spend, often unemployed, in the host country. Should government policy change, both the integration of refugees, and entrepreneurship in general would benefit.

This study aims to explore the political dimension of social network theory and assess how these connections motivate entrepreneurial activity and enhance postentry stages. The authors take an individualistic approach to the topic of institutional deterioration by uncovering the potential opportunities it can create, as entrepreneurship often arises when a market opportunity is perceived.

This study used a quantitative approach, using a self-selection sampling method to target private entities that own electric generators (also known as “illicit SMEs”) who are providing electricity services to the community despite the deterioration of the public energy sector in Lebanon. Data was collected through a survey administered electronically to 230 illicit SMEs, using a judgmental sampling method to ensure representation from all Lebanese governorates. The collected data was analyzed using ordinal least squares regression models.

The findings indicate a significant relationship between institutional deterioration and the reinvestment rate of entrepreneurs, with the moderating effect of political connections suggesting that the impact of institutional deterioration is dependent on the strength of an entrepreneur’s political connections.

The research findings demonstrate the significant influence of social ties and political connections on entrepreneurial activities, particularly in the context of SMEs that are providing services “illegally”. These results shed light on the importance of considering the role of social and political factors in the success and sustainability of entrepreneurial ventures operating in challenging environments.

Entrepreneurial studies typically focus on free market platforms and supply-demand associations, assuming perfect government conditions. However, this study differs from previous research by highlighting the positive impact of social ties on entrepreneurial market access within a socially linked environment. The findings suggest the importance of considering social connections in entrepreneurial studies, particularly in challenging economic and political contexts.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that might influence the intention and use behaviour of e-learning systems by students in state universities in Sri Lanka.

The theoretical model for this study was primarily drawn from unified theory of acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2). Exogenous variables included performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, work life quality, hedonic motivation, internet experience and facilitating condition, and their influence on behavioural intention and use behaviour were studied. Instrument was developed using validated items from past literature. Data for this quantitative study were collected from undergraduate and postgraduate students from 15 Sri Lankan state universities by self-administering and Web-form during second quarter of 2018. Structural equation modelling was used to see the insights from the valid data using IBM’s SPSS 25 and AMOS 22.

Results of the confirmatory factor analysis and subsequent evaluation of the structural model confirmed the proposed hypotheses, and it was found that constructs of UTAUT2 have a significant impact on and play an important role in behavioural intention to use and use behaviour of e-learning system by state university students in Sri Lanka.

The adoption of an e-learning system in Sri Lankan state universities is fairly low. Hence, investigation of what determinants might be contributing for adoption is important to enhance the learning experience of students and help them improve their knowledge. This paper contributes by delineating the factors that influence the acceptance and use of e-learning systems by students of state universities in Sri Lanka.

E-learning system has been widely acknowledged to have positive impacts on the learning process. Nevertheless, the intention to use it is globally low, thereby constituting puzzles to be solved. This study aims to proffer some insights to solve the puzzles.

The data of the study were collected through an online survey among 425 students of four private universities using interactive electronic board systems. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.

The significant results of the study reveal that system quality, information quality and teaching materials significantly influenced perceived usefulness. Technology innovativeness and information quality also significantly influenced perceived ease of use. Perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use equally influenced e-learning intention.

This research is one of the few studies that conceptualize a framework to study intention to use e-learning generally, and interactive electronic board in particular among four private universities using technology innovativeness, system quality, information quality, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and teaching materials.

Diversity in entrepreneurship has become a noteworthy topic of research since consistent differences – and few similarities, if any – exist among entrepreneurial profiles. The present paper aims to compare different entrepreneurial profiles managing innovation processes in new technology-based firms (NTBFs). In particular, attention is focussed on young entrepreneurs who are in a critical phase of their lifelong learning, the school-to-work transition.

Statistical elaborations are based on data retrieved from Italian Ministry of Economic Development in January 2021 and carried out through stochastic frontier analyses. Respectively, 1,699 young entrepreneurs, 1,079 female entrepreneurs, 205 ethnic entrepreneurs and 8,224 stereotyped entrepreneurs are considered.

Factors affecting the performance of innovation processes managed in NTBFs are the same for stereotyped and female entrepreneurs, but they consistently differ for young and ethnic entrepreneurs. Achieved results are not in the position to offer a complete analysis of the phenomenon but – hopefully – can corroborate a very interesting and up-to-date research path that merits further development. In particular, young entrepreneurs disclose an unexpected skills mismatch that should be investigated in-depth.

Most contributions offer a narrow view of entrepreneurial profiles since they focus on one profile per time. The present paper, instead, considers four entrepreneurial profiles and compares them. Moreover, young entrepreneurs reveal an unexpected skills mismatch that underlines the relevance of specific activities of on-the-job training and apprenticeships in order to try to overcome it and improve the results achievable by young entrepreneurs.

The e-learning-based approach is critical in keeping the wheels of education turning in the face of the COVID-19 epidemic. In this scenario, analyzing the implementation of the e-learning system is required to properly grasp the needs. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the relationship between technical system quality, information quality, service quality, educational system quality, support system quality, learner quality, instructor quality, perceived satisfaction, perceived usefulness, e-learning system use and benefits.

This study was carried out by giving online questionnaires to students attending private institutions in Indonesia. A total of 593 students participated in the study and provided responses. The structural equation model, which is supported by the program WarpPLS7.0, is used to analyze the data.

Maintaining the quality of the technological system, the information system, the learners and the educational system can help achieve the goal of increasing perceived utility. In the meanwhile, factors such as inadequate service quality, educational system quality, support system quality and teacher quality can all pose challenges to perceived levels of satisfaction. To get the most out of e-learning apps, users' expectations about how fun, useful and easy to use they are need to be met.

This study was carried out in the midst of the COVID-19 epidemic with a restricted number of participants from Indonesian institutions of higher education. This research has the potential to be expanded into a variety of different types of higher education in the future.

The main thing that will determine whether an e-learning system model works is the quality of the learners.

The institution should think about changing the material offered in the e-learning system to make it easier for students to grasp by describing the current material and providing digital handouts of lecturers' explanations. This study expanded the e-learning system success model and applied it to the evaluation of e-learning deployment in Indonesian higher education. This study will improve student comprehension of the e-learning model and contribute to the body of knowledge about e-learning applications and technology.

This study explored teachers' perceptions of a specific, collaborative peer observation structure, collegial visits, and collegial visits' connection to collective teacher efficacy (CTE). The research question was: how do teachers perceive collegial visits, particularly with respect to their influence on CTE?

Within this qualitative descriptive study, 13 K-12 educators from three northeastern USA schools (one urban high school and a suburban middle and elementary school) were interviewed individually and/or in a focus group.

Utilizing social cognitive theory as a framework for analysis, the authors found a theme of a shift from uninformed to informed perceptions of the collective. Results demonstrated that collegial visits foster positive CTE beliefs.

Since collegial visits were found to increase participants' CTE, a construct others have associated with increased student achievement, school leaders should consider implementing collegial visits as a professional learning structure in their schools after considering their specific context.

Though there has been recent scholarship connecting peer observations and CTE, there has been no research, to date, to examine the effect of the specific structure of collegial visits on CTE.

The purpose of this study is to examine determinants of profitability of non-financial firms listed small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK from 2012 till 2020. It has been argued that profitability plays a key role in economic development and growth. Despite the important role that SMEs play in developed economies like UK, academic research into SMEs profitability determinants in developed countries is not extensive.

The methodologies used include dynamic panel data estimation techniques. Relationship of nine independent variables with profitability was examined. Two models are created using return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) as dependent variables. Size, age, efficiency, working capital, liquidity, leverage and volatility of the firm represent firm-specific independent variables. Two macroeconomic variables, namely, gross domestic product and inflation are also used as independent variables. Data obtained from Thomson Reuters Data Stream for 93 listed SMEs companies in the UK from 2012 to 2020. Fixed effects, random effects and generalized method of moments were used in data analysis.

All variables showed significant influence on profitability, except liquidity reflecting insignificant impact on profitability in two regression models conducted for 93 firms under study. Efficiency, liquidity and leverage are the only three independent variables with similar impact on both ROA and ROE.

Identifying determinants of profitability will help stakeholders and corporate executive make sound decisions to ensure sustainability and stability at the firm level. This is particularly important given the key role played by SMEs in economic development and growth. The findings of this study would help direct financial management practices to ensure a favorable sustainable organizational performance.

This study differs from previous studies that focused mainly on developing countries; with limited research conducted on profitability of SMEs in developed economies. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to examine factors influencing profitability of SMEs in UK. Previous studies concentrated on service sector like insurance and hotel firms.