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Technical advantages embraced by blockchain, such as distributed ledger, P2P networks, consensus mechanisms and smart contracts, are highly compatible with addressing the security issues of transferring and storing judicial documents and obtaining the feedback and evaluation of judicial translation services in cases with foreign elements. Therefore, based on this, a consortium blockchain-based model for supervising the overall process of judicial translation services in cases with foreign elements is proposed.

Some judicial documents are required to be translated when there are language barriers in cases with foreign elements. The purpose of this paper is expected to address security issues, which is ignored, in the process of translating judicial documents.

The experimental results show that the model constructed in this paper can effectively guarantee the security and privacy of transferring and storing translated judicial documents in cases with foreign elements, and realize the credibility and traceability of feedbacks and evaluations of judicial translation services. In addition, the underlying network communications is stable and the speed for processing data can meet the requirements of practical application.

The research in this paper provides an innovative scheme for judicial translation services in cases with foreign elements. The model constructed is conducive to protecting the security of the transfer and storage of judicial documents and improving the efficiency and modernization ability of hearing cases with foreign elements.

The purpose of this study is to understand the public value of the government of Kuwait using blockchain technology to develop the capabilities of smart cities.

Research was conducted in Kuwait, where the increased use of blockchain technology has been evidenced in both the private and public sectors. A total of seven IT managers were interviewed to gauge their responses to blockchain and its use in Kuwait ministries.

Blockchain technology offers many benefits for the development of smart cities in Kuwait. This is a statement that received almost mutual agreement amongst all the IT managers interviewed. However, as regards wider acceptance, the majority mentioned that a framework is necessary to better articulate the public value of using blockchain in smart cities in Kuwait.

This paper develops research hypotheses and a framework for articulating the public value of blockchain technology for smart cities in Kuwait.

The main objective of this study is to investigate the factors that influence the adoption intention of cloud computing services among individual users using the extended theory of planned behavior.

A purposive sampling technique was used to collect a total of 339 data points, which were analyzed using SmartPLS to derive variance-based structural equation modeling and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).

The results obtained from PLS-SEM indicate that attitude towards cloud computing, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, perceived security, cost-effectiveness, and performance expectancy all have a positive and significant impact on the adoption intention of cloud computing services among individual users. On the other hand, the findings from fsQCA provide a clear interpretation and deeper insights into the adoption intention of individual users of cloud computing services by revealing the complex relationships between multiple combinations of antecedents. This helps to understand the reasons for individual users' adoption intention in emerging countries.

This study offers valuable insights to cloud service providers and cyber entrepreneurs on how to promote cloud computing services to individual users in developing countries. It helps these organizations understand their priorities for encouraging cloud computing adoption among individual users from emerging countries. Additionally, policymakers can also understand their role in creating a comfortable and flexible cloud computing access environment for individual users.

This study has contributed to the increasingly growing empirical literature on cloud computing adoption and demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed theoretical framework in identifying the potential reasons for the slow growth of cloud computing services adoption in the developing world.

Emerging literature on fintech has shown that consumers have been slow to adopt fintech-based products and services. However, limited literature is available regarding the factors associated with consumers' adoption of these products and services. This study aims to investigate the factors that are associated with consumer adoption of fintech-based products and services.

Data on the usage and perception of smartphone financial apps by US residents ages 18–70 was collected in the fall of 2020. Based on the Extended Post-Acceptance Model (EPAM) framework, Structural Equation Modeling and Confirmatory Factor Analysis were applied to inspect how financial capability, perceived security and perceived usefulness affect fintech adoption.

Fintech proficiency, investment risk tolerance and perceived safety are positively associated with the frequency of fintech application use upon adoption. Consumers are more likely to feel safer if they are more financially capable and technologically proficient. Consumers with higher risk tolerance tend to believe fintech apps are safe to use. Consumers with higher fintech proficiency are more likely to recognize the usefulness of fintech services.

The study introduces a revised EPAM framework with antecedent factors, fintech proficiency and risk tolerance to investigate the factors associated with consumer adoption of fintech-based products and services. The key findings of this study validate the EPAM in the American context. Additionally, this research is among the first to have confirmed the direct relationship between perceived security and fintech adoption. The results have practical implications for existing fintech companies, banks and financial institutions, policymakers and financial advisory practices considering adopting fintech-based services for their clients.

The purpose of this research article is to explore the behavioural intention of consumers to use app-based shopping for green-tech products in the emerging economy of Bangladesh. The study investigates the indirect effects of perceived ease of use, usefulness, perceived delivery and perceived security on the behavioural intention to use app-based shopping for purchasing green-tech products by considering the mediating role of perceived trust.

A quantitative research approach was applied to collect data from the respondents who had previously used app-based shopping for green-tech products in Bangladesh. An online, self-administered survey questionnaire was used to collect data from 348 respondents. The survey data was analysed using SmartPLS-4 to measure the reliability and validity of the constructs. In addition, partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the research model and hypotheses.

The study's results reveal that perceived usefulness, ease of use, security and delivery positively and significantly influence perceived trust, leading to a higher behavioural intention to use app-based shopping for green-tech products. Additionally, perceived trust significantly mediates the relationship between the behavioural intention to use app-based shopping and perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived security and perceived delivery.

The study's findings have important implications for app-based shopping services to support customers interested in purchasing green-tech products in an emerging economy. The results also indicate that green-tech product companies must adopt new service delivery channels and ensure consumers' convenience and cost and time savings. The present research findings suggest that green-tech product companies need to ensure that they integrate digital technologies into their services for secure and timely delivery of products, improving customer convenience.

The study's findings can be insightful for app-based shopping service providers to foster their businesses by focussing on developing a positive trust perception in the consumer's mind, leading to a positive intention to use the app-based shopping services. The present study will enrich the current literature by investigating how consumers' perceived trust affects their behavioural intention to use app-based online shopping for purchasing green-tech products. It will also expand the existing knowledge on app-based shopping by exploring how perceived delivery impacts perceived trust, which subsequently affects customers' intentions to adopt the purchase of green-tech products.

The main purpose of this study is to test for the interaction effect of digital literacy in the relationship between financial technologies (FinTechs) of biometrics and mobile money and digital financial inclusion among the unbanked poor women, youth and persons with disabilities (PWDs) in rural Uganda.

Covariance-based structural equation modeling was used to construct the interaction effect using data collected from the unbanked poor women, youth and PWDs located in the four regions in Uganda as prescribed by Hair et al. (2022).

The findings from this study are threefold: first; the results revealed a positive interaction effect of digital literacy between FinTechs of biometrics and mobile money and digital financial inclusion. Second; the results also confirmed that biometrics identification positively promotes digital financial inclusion. Lastly; the results showed that mobile money positively promotes digital financial inclusion. A combination of FinTechs of biometrics and mobile money together with digital literacy explain 29% variation in digital financial inclusion among the unbanked poor women, youth and PWDs in rural Uganda.

The data for this study were collected mainly from the unbanked poor women, youth and PWDs. Further studies may look at data from other sections of the vulnerable population in under developed financial markets. Additionally, the data for this study were collected only from Uganda as a developing country. Thus, more data may be obtained from other developing countries to draw conclusive and generalized empirical evidence. Besides, the current study used cross sectional design to collect the data. Therefore, future studies may adopt longitudinal research design to investigate the impact of FinTechs on digital financial inclusion in the presence of digital literacy across different time range.

The governments in developing countries like Uganda should support women, youth, PWDs and other equally vulnerable groups, especially in the rural communities to understand and use FinTechs. This can be achieved through digital literacy that can help them to embrace digital financial services and competently navigate and perform digital transactions over digital platforms like mobile money without making errors. Besides, governments in developing countries like Uganda can use this finding to advocate for the design of appropriate digital infrastructures to reach remote areas and ensure “last mile connectivity for digital financial services' users.” The use of off-line solutions can complement the absence or loss of on-line network connectivity for biometrics and mobile money to close the huge digital divide gap in rural areas. This can scale-up access to and use of financial services by the unbanked rural population.

This paper sheds more light on the importance of digital literacy in the ever complex and dynamic global FinTech ecosystem in the presence of rampant cyber risks. To the best of the authors' knowledge, limited studies currently exist that integrate digital literacy as a moderator in the relationship between FinTechs and digital financial inclusion, especially among vulnerable groups in under-developed digital financial markets in developing countries. This is the novelty of the paper with data obtained from the unbanked poor women, youth and PWDs in rural Uganda.

This study aims to investigate the antecedents of behavioral intention and actual usage of mobile payment (m-payment) services during the COVID-19 pandemic among Indian consumers.

The proposed research model of this study is based on the extended framework of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) by using two additional variables, namely, perceived security (PS) and perceived trust (PT). In total, 436 sample respondents are chosen from Indian consumers with experience using m-payment services through the online survey method. The data analysis and proposed hypothetical relationships were tested using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling techniques.

The results confirm that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, PS, PT, habit and price value are antecedents of consumer intention toward adopting m-payment services. Furthermore, behavioral intention significantly influences the actual usage of m-payment services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Though the impact of COVID-19 has been observed during the research period in getting responses from m-payment service users, the constructs used in the study are confined to the UTAUT2 model, and dimensions related to COVID-19 are not directly included in the measurement scale. The study’s findings propose valuable insights for service providers and policymakers.

This study’s results offer valuable insights to the service providers and policymakers to achieve the Government of India digital India objective of “Faceless, Paperless and Cashless” transactions.

This study’s results contribute to extending the empirical research literature on m-payment as antecedents of behavioral intention toward the adoption of m-payment services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, this study assumes important interrelationships among UTAUT2 constructs with the additional incorporation of PS and PT.

Presently, existing electric car sharing platforms are based on a centralized architecture which are faced with inadequate trust and pricing issues as these platforms requires an intermediary to maintain users’ data and handle transactions between participants. Therefore, this article aims to develop a decentralized peer-to-peer electric car sharing prototype framework that offers trustable and cost transparency.

This study employs a systematic review and data were collected from the literature and existing technical report documents after which content analysis is carried out to identify current problems and state-of-the-art electric car sharing. A use case scenario was then presented to preliminarily validate and show how the developed prototype framework addresses the trust-lessness in electric car sharing via distributed ledger technologies (DLTs).

Findings from this study present a use case scenario that depicts how businesses can design and implement a distributed peer-to-peer electric car sharing platforms based on IOTA technology, smart contracts and IOTA eWallet. Main findings from this study unlock the tremendous potential of DLT to foster sustainable road transportation. By employing a token-based approach this study enables electric car sharing that promotes sustainable road transportation.

Practically the developed decentralized prototype framework provides improved cost transparency and fairness guarantees as it is not based on a centralized price management system. The DLT based decentralized prototype framework aids to orchestrate the incentivize monetization and rewarding mechanisms among participants that share their electric cars enabling them to collaborate towards lessening CO₂ emissions.

The findings advocate that electric vehicle sharing has become an essential component of sustainable road transportation by increasing electric car utilization and decreasing the number of vehicles on the road.

The key novelty of the article is introducing a decentralized prototype framework to be employed to develop an electric car sharing solution without a central control or governance, which improves cost transparency. As compared to prior centralized platforms, the prototype framework employs IOTA technology smart contracts and IOTA eWallet to improve mobility related services.

This paper aims to examine the conditions under which small and medium enterprises (SMEs) invest in security services when they migrate their e-commerce applications to the cloud environment. Using a risk management perspective, the paper assesses the impact of security service pricing, security incident prevalence and virulence to estimate SME security spending at the market level and draw out implications for SMEs and security service providers.

Security risks are inherently characterized by uncertainty. This study uses a Monte Carlo approach to understand the role of uncertainty in the decision to adopt security services. A model relating key security constructs is assembled based on key constructs from the domain. By manipulating security service costs and security incident types, the model estimates the market-level adoption of services, security incidents and damages incurred, along with measures of their relative dispersion.

Three key findings emerge from this study. First, adoption of services and protection is higher when tiered security services are provided, indicating that SMEs prefer to choose their security services rather than accept uniformly priced products. Second, SMEs are considered price-sensitive, resulting in a maximum level of spending in the market. Third, results indicate that security incidents and damages can be much higher than the mean in some cases, and this should serve as a cautionary note to SMEs.

Security spending has been modeled at the firm level. Adopting a market-level perspective represents a novel contribution. Additionally, the Monte Carlo approach provides managers with tangible measures of uncertainty, affording additional information and insight when making security service adoption decisions.

The purpose of this study paper is to highlight certain related barriers and issues of housing affordability and examine the factors that influence housing affordability in Malaysia.

This study used panel data including several variables, namely, household expense, population, home financing, interest rate, inflation rate (IF) and rental rate (RR). The regression models of panel data, namely, the ordinary least square model, the fixed effects model and the random effects model, were evaluated for their suitability.

The findings revealed that RR and IF have a positive and significant impact towards housing affordability. The results provide strong evidence that RR as alternative in determining the home affordability as it helped in reducing the cost and the financing duration period of houses while at the same time increasing the level of capability of homeownership. Meanwhile, the level of IF has positive and significant impact towards housing affordability because it will cause a drop or increase in the purchasing power of households, as well as a decline or increase in the capability to own a house.

The most significant aspects to consider when analysing housing affordability in Malaysia are demand and supply. However, this study focuses on only five variables and only covers Malaysia. As a result, future researchers should analyse the study’s location, such as by region or district, and include additional variables from both the demand and supply sides. Homeownership of affordability requires a broader and more realistic definition in the current context of a more disruptive environment where technology such as fintech, blockchain and the internet of things acts as enablers for not only promoting homeownership but also ensuring homeownership sustainability. As a result, democratising Islamic home financing appears to be a viable option that requires rethinking, and further research is recommended.

The study proposes an end-to-end solution to promote homeownership levels by considering the level of RR as significant variables among stakeholders such as the house buyers/owners, sellers, investors as well the government agencies in influencing affordability in Malaysia.

This paper discusses the indicators of housing affordability index over the 21-year period of 2000–2020, covering all states in Malaysia. The comparison of affordability level can be seen through all states and by regions. Besides that, the findings revealed that RR and IF have a positive and significant impact towards housing affordability. RR is considered an essential variable in promoting homeownership in Malaysia and warrants further investigation towards policy implication. This paper also provides contribution on data on RR by states in Malaysia that can be used by policymakers to some extent.