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The paper aims to enrich current debate about human–technology dichotomy in socio-economic settings by decoding and systematizing the main phases through which it has been approached in managerial and social studies.

A multi-interpretative framework is built thanks to the adoption of a qualitative approach inspired by the inductive logic, and for analyzing the historical evolution of the approach to human–technology dichotomy and for explaining them through an innovative conceptual model.

An innovative conceptual model is proposed for depicting connections and evolutions among the main four phases in the evolution of the approaches to human–technology dichotomy.

Reflections and conceptual model herein can support researchers in rereading the multiple theoretical and practical contributions provided with reference to human and technology relations in socio-economic settings.

The paper can support managers and entrepreneurs in defining and evaluating managerial approaches for efficiently enhancing human–technology interaction.

The paper proposes an innovative conceptual model based on a multi-interpretative framework for decoding the historical evolution of the approaches to human–technology dichotomy in business settings. New variables are added to the current debate about the topic for building an original interpretive viewpoint.

Agriculture is a vital sector for every country, especially for a country like India, where the majority of the population is dependent on agriculture as their earning source. Technological improvements in agriculture will increase output with proper forecasting of input resources. In this study, the author tries to investigate the attitude of end users (farmers) about the use of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies.

The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model is used to assess the behavioral aspects. The significance of socioeconomic and technological factors is highlighted, providing the study with a thorough understanding of farmers' decision-making processes. A research questionnaire was developed for data collection, and descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the results using AMOS and SPSS software.

A total of 371 survey responses were collected. The results demonstrate that the hypothesis regarding UTAUT model components is validated, while several mediating hypotheses are not supported, indicating that they are not significant in farmers' decision-making.

In this study, socioeconomic and technological factors are considered to be mediating and moderating elements between the constructs of the UTAUT model. Increasing the accuracy and reliability of our study by integrating mediating and moderating variables. This study assists industry specialists in understanding the elements that farmers consider while switching toward new technologies.

The purpose of this research is to develop a comprehensive model to better understand competitive dynamics between mobile payment providers in a multi-sided market featuring customers and merchants. This is undertaken by modeling customers performing financial transactions with merchants while two mobile payment systems (MPS) providers deploy different strategies to compete for market share.

The authors developed an agent-based simulation model using the NetLogo environment. The simulation featured two competing platform providers, 1,000 customer agents and 50 merchant agents. Past research, interviews and surveys were conducted to accurately model the behavior of the agents. Each simulation run lasted for 50 time periods. A total of 1,024 experimental conditions were designed to model different competitive environments, and 50 replications were conducted for a total of 51,200 experiments.

The simulation model provides insight into MPS platform providers’ competitive strategies by simultaneously modelling socioeconomic interactions between customers, merchants and MPS.

From a methodological perspective, the paper contributes a comprehensive model that can be used to study competitive dynamics between competing platforms in a multi-sided market. From the perspective of competitive strategies, the results show that pricing alone is not sufficient to influence MPS diffusion. Interactions between pricing, customers’ risk perception, perceived security and ease of use of the platform create unexpected same-side and cross-side network effects, which affect MPS diffusion.

While pricing remains a crucial lever for MPS to compete for market share, they should focus on enhancing customers’ and merchants’ trust and reduce their risk perception. This can be done through the improvement of the user experience of their platform, development of educational materials and marketing campaigns that address concerns around security, data breaches and perceived risk.

The paper is a direct response to a recent call for action on studying competition between MPS platforms by simultaneously modelling the socio-economic behavior of heterogeneous consumers and merchants. The proposed agent-based simulation model can be used to provide insights into competitive strategies and as a building block for subsequent research in this area.

The purpose of microcredit is to offer small loans to people who are not covered by traditional financial channels. It can facilitate entrepreneurship, boosting local socio-economic development and improving environmental and political factors.

This paper aims to analyse microcredit in Italy, focusing on a project based in Rione Sanità, Naples. Rione Sanità is one of the poorest areas of Southern Italy, displaying high rates of criminality and unemployment, especially among youth, women, migrants and the vulnerable. The district is renowned for its fine and ancient handicrafts, food, trade and historical heritage – potential drivers for boosting tourism in the area. Qualitative methodologies were used to collect primary data through field visits and interviews with project bankers, local businesses, artisans, associations and religious representatives, project volunteers, as well as participation at local meetings. These data were corroborated by budget analysis based on the project's accounting.

The study shows encouraging results for the project and policy prospects. Despite the tiny starting numbers, there emerges a significant potential for microcredit to spread in the district, as in Southern Italy, providing an effective strategy to combat unemployment, usury and criminality, yielding community development and favoring broad societal challenges.

With this evidence, the paper attempts to shed some light and verify the potential of microfinance projects as a driver of sustainable development and ethical finance in poor areas of developed countries.

The paper positions social and technological innovation as pivotal counterforces to conservative resistance against change, particularly in light of the recurrent economic and technological upheavals characterizing the present shape of capitalism.

The research adopts a qualitative methodology, rooted in a comparative case study approach, offering a critical retrospective analysis of societal disruptions and transformations. Central to this methodological framework is the construct of sensemaking, which is characterized as the process by which collective entities retrospectively develop plausible narratives that rationalize their experiences. The approach is informed by the dynamics of socio-ecological systems, which are understood to undergo cyclical phases of growth, stabilization, collapse, and regeneration.

The study shows evidence that resilience and adaptability are more authentically gauged by socio-technological responses to cyclical disruptions and recoveries. It delineates sensemaking as a crucial socioecological mechanism through which elicitation emerges and societies and organizations navigate these cycles, forging shared narratives from collective experiences that are driven by plausibility rather than mere accuracy.

The research calls for the development of policies that synthesize disruptive innovations with strategies for social cohesion. Such policies must ensure the protection of the socioeconomic texture from implicit structural precariousness arising from innovation. The ability to integrate and institutionalize change is emphasized as crucial, demanding a synergy between innovative creativity, new normative frameworks, and the preservation of fundamental societal values.

The paper challenges reductionist technological interpretations of societal changes, advocating for a holistic perspective that accounts for the redistributive and elicitation roles as vital to the evolution of socio-economic systems. The value of this research lies in its comprehensive framing of these transformations, underscoring the importance of a multi-faceted understanding in the effective management of socioeconomic change.

The purpose of this paper is to guide commercial and policy action to improve smallholder Indonesian cattle systems.

A survey (n = 304) of smallholder cattle farms in six villages in two districts of Nusa Tenggara Barat, Indonesia. Principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) were employed to classify cattle farms into business models according to observed innovation. Differences between business models were identified using a one-way-analysis-of-variance (ANOVA).

Four business models were identified, representing profiles of innovation adoption and elements of business models, socio-economic characteristics, farming system and performance variables including revenue, cost and profit. The business models display a range of orientation to buyer requirements and a range of approaches to production, indicating a need to promote in a variety of ways the change from supply-push to demand-pull in the cattle value chain.

This study offers guidance on how business models might be strengthened over time, by using simple indicators of performance and the models' linkage to innovation in the context of each business model. The business models developed here, and refinements to them based on localised conditions, offer a targeted and accelerated pathway to improved performance in smallholder systems.

This study proposed a novel approach to the recognition of business models based on innovation.

The purpose of this study is to examine relevant demographic and socio-economic factors as they relate to progress towards intercultural communicative competence (ICC) and intercultural sensitivity for ethnic-minority Latinx middle school English learners (ELs) using a mobile-assisted funds-of-knowledge-featured writing practice.

Through the theoretical lens of funds of knowledge, this three-year study implemented a survey-based quasi-experimental design centered on the Latinx ELs’ ICC development with the implementation of an intercultural sensitivity questionnaire (Chen and Starosta, 2000). The authors first investigated the relationship between ELs’ intercultural sensitivity and associated demographic and socio-economic factors. The authors then examined the changes of ELs’ intercultural sensitivity. Over ten weeks, the intervention group completed five funds-of-knowledge-featured narrative essays using pen and paper and mobile-based writing tools alternatively.

Findings indicated that ELs’ intercultural sensitivity increased as they advanced to a higher-level grade from sixth to eighth. The embedded mobile-assisted funds-of-knowledge writing practice as intervention promoted ELs’ intercultural sensitivity in interaction engagement, respect of cultural differences, interaction enjoyment and interaction attentiveness. Among the variables, interaction enjoyment was portrayed the most. ELs who reported not speaking English at home were statistically significant in this experiment.

This study acknowledges the robust and variance of funds of knowledge as a niche to address the interculturality and hybridity of ELs’ cultural practices accumulated through Latinx ELs’ family socialization and social development using mobile-assisted writing practice. This study could provide implications for optimizing inclusive experience to promote computer-assisted language learning in a contemporary, postcolonial global world.

This study aims to reveal whether social capital has an effect on the housing price index in Turkey, which is a developing country. The research was carried out by using the data on the basis of 81 provinces of Turkey in a 12-year period covering the years 2007–2018.

The data were subjected to panel data regression analysis and the related models were tested using the Driscoll-Kraay (1998) Estimator.

According to the results of the analysis, it was understood that there is a negative and significant relationship between social capital (SC1) and the housing price index. The results were corroborated by susceptibility testing. As the level of social capital rises in the provinces in Turkey, the manipulative and opportunistic behavior tendencies of individual and corporate house sellers decrease. These results support the principal–agent theory and theory of moral hazard, which constitute the theoretical background of the study.

No study has been found in the literature on the effect of social capital on housing prices. This situation constitutes the main motivation source of the study and shows its originality.

This study aims to highlight the issues encountered by Islamic Banking Institutions (IBIs) while financing the agriculture sector and explore the feasibility of Muzara’ah (crop sharing contract on partnership basis) model based on the concept of revolving credit as an alternative to current models.

To validate the proposed model and gauge the feasibility of Muzara’ah contract, a qualitative research method is applied based on 10 in-depth interviews with qualified industry experts and practitioners. These interviewees are selected following the purposive sampling method, and they belong to Sharīʿah board members of banking institutions, banking industry professionals engaged in agriculture lending, financial regulators (i.e. central bank personnel) and the farming community. Thematic analysis was applied to analyze the data.

The findings of this study document that Muzara’ah can be a useful alternative/solution for the growth of agriculture sector portfolio of financial institutions. Muzara’ah is cost-effective than other Islamic products, including Salam (a kind of sale in which payment is made on the spot while the delivery of the goods is deferred), and carries the features of revolving credit as offered by conventional banks/counterparts.

The main limitation of the study is that only 10 in-depth interviews are conducted.

The application of the Sharīʿah compliant Muzara’ah model based on the concept of revolving credit could help increase agricultural productivity and revenues and reduce poverty and food insecurity. The research will help IBIs to develop products on the concept of Muzara’ah for farmers and other sectors of the agriculture industry.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, Muzara’ah contract is not offered by formal banking institutions in Pakistan. Hence, the findings contribute to the existing literature and facilitate the policymakers and practitioners in implementing this financial product for the growth of the agriculture sector.

In this chapter, the most important regulatory measures required for rural marketing and sales have been identified – why protection of consumers' interests should be maintained; why rural development is important; the role of Code of Conduct, particularly on Advertising and Marketing Communication Practice 2011, and the role of Codes, in general, but in particular, International Code of Advertising Practice 1986, the Code of Marketing Practice, the International Code of Sales Promotion 1987, etc. have received attention.