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The 1997-98 financial crisis has had a profound effect on how East Asian economies the role of the IMF and its strategic interests relative to those of the United States in the international financial regime. It has prompted them to create a regional mechanism for financial and monetary cooperation, ranging from deeper policy dialogue and surveillance, to a system of financial cooperation, and common exchange rate arrangements. This paper analyses the economic and strategic motivations behind this and outlines recent developments in financial cooperation in East Asia to provide possible directions for the future.

A network of bilateral swap arrangements under the Chiang Mai Initiative(CMI) needs stronger policy dialogue and surveillance to develop into a regional financing facility, a sort of East Asian IMF. The facility plays a role as an regional lender of last resort, providing short-term funds to a member country facing a temporary liquidity shortage and for market intervention to stabilize foreign exchange rate. East Asian countries need to achieve regional exchange rate stability. In the long run, the region may develop a common currency arrangement, but it cannot be expected in the very near future because there is no convergence of macroeconomic conditions, economic structure and systems. A realistic approach would be for East Asian developing countries to adopt a currency basket system to minimize the impact of dollar/yen exchange rate volatility on their economies. Strong political will and a vision for regional integration will be required to introduce it.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of monetary policy on equity returns by applying an alternative econometric approach. Campbell and Ammer (1993) decomposed unexpected equity excess returns into three news components: risk premium news, real interest rate news and cash-flow news. The literature has determined the monetary policy (MP) effects on these news components. The authors propose an alternative MP shock identification approach to analyze the MP effects on the above-mentioned news components under a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) setup. Under this approach, one can apply an MP indicator in the SVAR, which helps forecast equity excess returns along with its external instruments for identification. Further, this study uses the various recently proposed measures of exogenous MP shocks and Fed information shocks as external instruments, and shows the different patterns of the news components' responses depending on the information in the applied instruments.

The purpose of this study is to discover the factors related to human resource (HR) digital transformation (DT) in Bahrain during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and to analyze the impact of e-human resource management (e-HRM) on organizational performance. These factors are funding, information technology (IT) infrastructure, technical support, digital skills or talents, organizational culture, employee resistance and top management support. These factors were tested to determine whether they affected HR DT in Bahrain during COVID-19. There are no findings in the researched literature regarding the proposed factors that affect HR DT in Bahrain during COVID-19 in this study.

For data collection, a quantitative method was applied by conducting an online survey and distributing it to HR executives and employees from multiple organizations in Bahrain, both in the private and public sectors.

This study proposes a DT adoption model based on seven factors extracted from the literature review. A questionnaire was deployed, and accurate data were collected, processed and then analyzed. The logit model shows determinants factor to the DT adoption where all variables have a positive effect.

Using technology in an organization’s HR practices, known as e-HRM or HR DT, is becoming more crucial since the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike European countries, the HR sector in Bahrain is not prepared to adopt the e-HRM process. This paper proposes a model that enables the HR sector to adopt digital technologies. This model is based on the key factors that enable an effective transition to the sector’s digitalization (e-HRM). Future research is sought to provide additional insights into the same factors and measure their effect on HR DT during COVID-19 in other countries.

This study investigates entrepreneurial overconfidence (EOC) levels among solo entrepreneurs at the country level. Although transitions from solo to employer entrepreneur are relatively rare, the solo self-employed have become an important source of potential job creation by virtue of the sharp increase in their numbers in the past two decades. When EOC levels are too high, job creation ambitions may be unrealistic and unrealised. Unrealised ambitions and business failure can lead not only to psychological and financial costs for the individual entrepreneurs involved, but at the societal level also to wasted government resources, and increased costs for the entrepreneurial ecosystem as a whole. Therefore, it is important to know more about the entrepreneurial overconfidence levels of solo entrepreneurs in different countries and their determinants.

Using Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data for 71 countries over the period 2013–2016, the authors construct a new measure of entrepreneurial overconfidence of solo entrepreneurs and relate this to three recently developed indicators of national culture.

The findings indicate that EOC levels are positively related to Joy (versus Duty), and negatively related to Trust (versus Distrust). Finally, no significant relationship between entrepreneurial overconfidence and Individualism is found in the study (versus Collectivism).

Given the lack of literature examining the relationship between EOC levels and cultural variables hypotheses were developed using the existent body of knowledge in the area, which is at the early stage of development. The hypotheses derivation has used mostly theoretical arguments relating to the link between national culture and overconfidence of entrepreneurs in general, rather than relating specifically to solo entrepreneurs. The measure of EOC uses expectations of employment growth to proxy overconfidence, but other measures of entrepreneurial success may also be explored.

As the hiring of employees can be a costly process (Coad et al., 2017), it is important that entrepreneurs have realistic expectations of what it requires to hire employees. This is especially the case for solo entrepreneurs since they do not have experience of hiring their own employees. This paper addresses such issues at an aggregate level by exploring what factors explain country differences in overconfidence levels of solo entrepreneurs.

It is worthwhile to distinguish between solo and employer entrepreneurs when studying their EOC levels, as the ambitions of these two types of entrepreneurs are different. Empirically, this study introduces a new measure of EOC tailored towards the solo self-employed.

This study contributes to entrepreneurship literature by expanding current knowledge on entrepreneurial overconfidence at the country level. Past research has studied EOC at the individual level, however limited research exists on the phenomenon of EOC from a country level perspective. This is important as unrealised entrepreneurial ambitions may not only create substantial costs for the individual entrepreneurs involved, it may also lead to substantial societal costs, including waste of government resources.

This study attempts to recognize the effects of the Pakistan–China free trade agreements (PCFTA) on promoting trade between the two economies.

Following the concept of revealed comparative advantage (RCA) and free trade agreements, the study first identifies those commodities in which Pakistan and China have a robust RCA and then analyze the effect of PCFTA on the export value of those commodities for the bilateral trade between Pakistan and China. The study used the panel data in which more than the top 150 importers (j) have been selected for each case of Pakistan and China for the period of 2003–2015.

The study concludes that even with the higher convergence rate, the good RCA does not guarantee a positive effect of the free trade agreement on the commodities.

The study contributes to the existing literature by integrating RCA with the gravity model by adopting a sequential mode for Pakistan–China free trade agreement.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between fiscal policy (tax revenues and government expenditure) and economic happiness. The panel data are used from 2012 to 2016 for 18 countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

The study adopted the Barro (1990) model of endogeneity growth to characterize the relationship between fiscal policy and economic happiness. The study estimated the model by using the pooled ordinary least squares method, the fixed effects method and the random-effects method. In addition, the study used the dynamic estimate of this relationship rather than the conventional static estimate through the generalized method of moments’ method. This leads to overcoming the endogeneity problem between the dependent variable and the independent variables.

The main findings indicated that there is a negative and statistically significant relationship between nondistortionary taxes and economic happiness. Also, there is no relationship between public expenditure and economic happiness, whether productive or nonproductive. The results confirmed a positive and significant relationship between other revenues and economic happiness. The current study recommended the diversification of other public revenue sources to increase its contribution to public expenditure financing and the restructuring of the tax system, particularly nondistortionary taxes. These taxes must be replaced by other revenues or by distortionary taxes to increase economic happiness.

The research represents a strong starting base that can help researchers to conduct more studies on economic happiness by using different measures and comparing their results to find out the determinants of happiness. The relationship between economic happiness and fiscal policy with its different aspects requires more studies, especially the relationship between taxes and economic happiness in our region. The study of the relationship between public expenditure and economic happiness according to economic activities can guide decision-makers to direct the expenditure toward economic activities that achieve the happiness of their citizens. Enriching this study requires the availability of fiscal data for the entire MENA region for longer periods, which allow us to divide the countries of the region into petroleum and nonpetroleum countries, but the scarcity of data is one of the limitations of the study.

The governments of MENA countries should diversify other public revenue sources to increase the financing public expenditure by the expense of tax revenues, especially nondistortionary taxes, which would increase the economic happiness of their citizens.

This study is one of the rare studies that investigate the relationship between fiscal policy and economic happiness at the global level. This study contributed to filling the gap of this issue in the MENA region and enriching global literature through the experience of the MENA region. Moreover, this study investigated all aspects of fiscal policy, in contrast to other studies that focused on one of its aspects. The weakness in these studies is because of the lack of correlation between the sources of revenues and the face of their spending.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate travel agencies' social media usage and its perceived effectiveness by small- and micro-Italian travel agencies; the pre-pandemic period is compared to the forecasts for the post-Covid-19 period and different characteristics of firms and entrepreneurs are considered. Furthermore, the study analyses the expected benefits in terms of marketing objectives, such as improving brand image and/or personalizing the offer.

The research was developed through a questionnaire administered electronically to travel agents (282 respondents). The resulting data was analyzed by applying the McNemar test, a pairwise t-test and the multivariate analysis of variance.

The results show that social media are strategically significant for travel agents, even though their adoption is influenced by different agency aims; the perceived effectiveness results are diversified according to varying agency typologies.

The two main limitations of the study are its focus on the Italian context only and the missing consideration of the consumer's point of view. The latter prevents an exhaustive assessment of future trends regarding the use of social media in the client–agency relationship.

The study, which focuses on a little debated topic concerning the relationship between social media and SMEs, organically explores various dimensions related to the adoption of social media by small agencies, also considering the impact of the Covid-19 on the perception of travel agents. As a further element of originality, the research takes into consideration the main social platforms separately rather than the set of tools as a whole.

This conceptual study investigates the adoption of education technology (EdTech) products among college students, focusing on identifying the key factors influencing the adoption process within educational institutions. Technology integration in education has rapidly gained prominence, with EdTech offering innovative solutions to enhance teaching and learning experiences. However, understanding the determinants that affect EdTech adoption remains critical for its successful implementation and impact. This paper aims (1) to identify the factors influencing the adoption of EdTech by college students (2) to create a conceptual model that shows the connections between the elements that lead to college students adopting EdTech.

The research employed a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative data analysis and conceptual modeling to achieve the objectives. The underlying knowledge required to create a qualitative data gathering tool was obtained through a thorough literature analysis on innovation dissemination, educational psychology and technology adoption. College students, teachers and administrators participated in semi-structured interviews, focus groups and surveys to provide detailed perspectives on their attitudes about and experiences with EdTech. The Scopus and Web of Science databases are searched for relevant information in an organized manner in order to determine the factors influencing the adoption of EdTech. Second, an extended version of the technology adoption model is adopted to develop a qualitative data-based conceptual framework to analyze EdTech adoption in the Indian context.

Overall, by highlighting the critical components that emotionally influence college students' adoption of EdTech products in educational institutions, this course adds to the body of information already in existence. The conceptual framework model serves as a roadmap for educational stakeholders seeking to leverage EdTech effectively to enrich the learning environment and improve educational outcomes. By recognizing the significance of the identified factors, academic institutions can make informed decisions to foster a climate conducive to successful EdTech integration.

A comprehensive conceptual framework model was developed based on qualitative data analysis to illustrate the interrelationships between the identified factors influencing EdTech adoption. This model presents a valuable tool for educational institutions, policymakers and EdTech developers to comprehend the complex dynamics of implementing these technological solutions.

The findings of this study demonstrated a number of important variables that affect the uptake of EdTech products in educational settings. These factors encompassed technological infrastructure, ease of use, perceived usefulness, compatibility with existing academic practices, institutional support, financial constraints and individual attitudes towards technology. Additionally, the research explored the significance of institutional preparation for embracing technological advancements as well as the influence of socio-cultural elements.

This study evaluated the determinants of augmented reality (AR) adoption in Malaysia's travel and tour operator sectors through an integrated technology-organization-environmental (TOE) and diffusion of innovation (DOI) model.

The TOE and DOI were considered the primary theoretical models but are combined and extended by including few additional variables. Data were collected from 220 respondents of travel and tour operating businesses in Malaysia and analyzed by applying PLS structural equation model technique.

The empirical results established that perceived cost, relative advantages, complexity and compatibility, observability, competitor pressure, value alignment, customer pressure, and trialability are positively connected with the behavioral intention except for external support. The results reveal that value alignment partially mediates the association between relative advantages and behavioral intention, complexity and behavioral intention, compatibility and behavioral intention, perceived cost and behavioral intention except in between trialability and observability.

This research is unique as the value alignment construct is included in the model, and thus it fulfills the literature gap by adding the mediation construct. This study contributes to enhancing AR's understanding of the Malaysian travel and tour operator industry through the lenses of owners or managers. It offers an integrated model that combines the TOE and DOI models, rare in this sector, and can be replicated or extended with validated scales.

This paper aims to map the influential concepts on technology adoption in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through conducting a systematic literature review and finding a better understanding of the current body of knowledge.

A systematic literature review approach is taken here, which includes the following steps: Determination of keywords and strings, selection of databases, setting inclusion and exclusion criteria, conducting the search in chosen databases over a specific period of time. This process has led to the final count of 349 peer-reviewed articles being studied, and the results are analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively.

As a result of the study, 11 categories of influential concepts on technology adoption are identified by reviewing literature from the past decade. This article indicates how fragmented the literature is and how it concentrates on studying the impact of only a limited number of categories of concepts. The scatted frameworks (theoretical and conceptual) and weak application of the used theories found in this research also highlight the need for the development of a framework that looks into technology adoption as a dynamic process due to the dynamic nature of new technologies today.

Based on the above findings, future research avenues are to look into technology adoption from a process perspective, to dig into less researched influencing concepts such as infrastructure, regulations, strategy and resources and their role in adoption of technology in SMEs as well as development of a framework for technology adoption that is aligned with these elements.

Practitioners and policymakers will benefit from finding a helicopter view of the barriers and supporting factors throughout their technology adoption journey. The knowledge they gain from this study will better prepare them in building tools they need for adopting technology in their organizations and provide an in-depth insight to what elements can affect their journey.

This review provides an insight into the current body of knowledge on the topic, which researchers can benefit from constructing an in-depth understanding of the state of research as well as influencing concepts of technology adoption in SMEs. Moreover, it adds value in building up the knowledge of technology adoption in today's dynamic world of digitalization.