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The adoption of solar energy by households is an important avenue of protecting the environment and enabling energy access in rural areas, especially in developing countries like Uganda, where energy access is low. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the factors that influence the households’ willingness to adopt solar photovoltaic (PV) energy and how soon the households are willing to adopt solar PV energy for business use in Uganda.

Heckman’s two-step selection model was used to determine the willingness and urgency of adopting solar PV energy for business use in selected districts in Eastern Uganda. The respondents were selected purposively at the household level at a given point in time.

Results show that sex, household head estimated income, mode of acquisition and repayment terms of solar technology positively influence both willingness and urgency to adopt solar energy for business use in households. However, financial disclosure only influences willingness to adopt solar. Then, age and energy need only significantly influence how soon the household is willing to adopt solar PV energy for business use.

This study’s findings essentially apply to the individual factors that determine the willingness and urgency to adopt solar PV energy for business use by households. Hence, further research is needed to understand the external and industrial factors which could strengthen the predictive potential of the elements in this study.

This study underscores the need for regulatory enforcement on the supply and usage of quality, reliable and affordable solar equipment which are suitable for business use. Also, the need to promote and finance the usage of solar PV as a green energy source for household businesses has been emphasized.

The study simultaneously examines the willingness and urgency to adopt solar PV energy for household business purposes using Heckman’s two-step selection model. This has hitherto remained unknown empirically.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a measurement framework to evaluate the lean readiness level (LRL) and lean systems (LS) within Kuwaiti small and medium‐sized manufacturing industries (K‐SMMIs). A measurement framework which encompasses the quality practices related to LS (processes; planning and control; human resources; top management and leadership; customer relations; and supplier relations) is used to assess the quality practices in K‐SMMIs and determine whether they have the foundation to implement LS.

The authors conducted a comprehensive literature review, semi‐structured interviews with 27 senior managers, and a quantitative survey administered to 50 K‐SMMIs. The responses were entered into SPSS software to conduct a reliability test and independent sample t‐test.

The results indicate that current quality practices within K‐SMMIs are not very supportive towards LS. Many factors are revealed to affect K‐SMMIs with respect to LS, including language barriers, and deficiencies in aspects including quality workers in terms of education and skills; technology; government attention; know‐how regarding LS; market competitiveness; and urgency for adopting LS.

Very limited information is available on LS and QI in Kuwait. The LRL framework should be tested in small and medium‐sized manufacturing industries (SMMIs) that successfully use LS, in order to provide a benchmark. The study's findings can be used as an internal checklist prior to and during lean implementation.

This LS and LRL measurement framework relating to K‐SMMIs represents a unique effort in the area of lean management.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that drive or impede the intention of Indonesian consumers to perform regular medical checkup (MCU).

This study begins with an ethnographic study to ascertain the determinant factors that motivate or hinder an individual from performing regular MCU. The study involved stakeholders in various health services providers, including patients and medical professionals. The quantitative part of this study focuses on “preventive” segment of consumers. A survey was conducted covering 303 respondents, consisting of two sub-segments of people labelled “healthy lifestyle” and “unhealthy lifestyle”.

Consumer behaviour with regards to needs for MCU must be categorised not based on demographics, but their health status – preventive or curative. The “preventive” group was found to have differences in triggers and barriers between the healthy vs unhealthy lifestyle subgroups. For the “healthy lifestyle” subgroup, the determining factors for a regular MCU are the perceived benefit of action, social deviance, and cost perception. For the “unhealthy lifestyle” subgroup, the determining factors for a regular MCU are the social deviance, disease heritage, belief in traditional medicine, no urgency and cost perception.

The qualitative study part indicated the differences between two segments: preventive vs curative. The quantitative study part is only conducted in the preventive segment and not covering the curative segment. It would be interesting to see the differences between these two segments.

Implication of study: to create contextual marketing communication in each stakeholders/segments – to reach the marketing objectives. Different segment has different issues to handle and need a different marketing communication programme.

Previous studies have focused on analysing the differences in groups based on their demographics, which does not illustrate a homogenous need for an MCU. This study contributes by addressing that researchers must differentiate between “preventive” and “curative” groups. Additionally, the study of triggers and barriers has interestingly found that the determinant factors for healthy and unhealthy lifestyle are not the same.

Environmental degradation, economic and political threats along with ideological extremism necessitate a global redirection toward sustainability and well-being. Since the survival of all species (humans, animals, and plants) is wholly dependent on a healthy planet, urgent action at the highest levels to address large-scale interconnected problems is needed to counter the thinking that perpetuates the “folly of a limitless world.” Paralleling critical societal roles played by universities – ancient, medieval, and modern – throughout the millennia, this chapter calls for all universities and higher education institutions (HEIs) generally – estimated at over 28,000 – to take a lead together in tackling the pressing complex and intractable challenges that face us. There are about 250 million students in tertiary education worldwide rising to about 600 million by 2040. Time is not on our side. While much of the groundwork has been done by the United Nations (UN) and civil society, concerns remain over the variable support given to the UN-2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially in light of the negative impact of global biodiversity loss on achieving the UN-2030 SDGs. Ten propositions for global sustainability, ranging from adopting the SDGs at national and local levels to ensuring peaceful uses of technology and UN reforms in line with global socioeconomic shifts, are provided for consideration by decisionmakers. Proposition #7 calls for the unifying One Health & Well-Being (OHWB) concept to become the cornerstone of our educational systems as well as societal institutions and to underpin the UN-2030 SDGs. Recognizing the need to change our worldview (belief systems) from human-centrism to eco-centrism, and re-building of trust in our institutions, the chapter argues for the re-conceptualization of the university/higher education purpose and scope focusing on the development of an interconnected ecological knowledge system with a concern for the whole Earth – and beyond. The 2019 novel coronavirus has made clear that the challenges facing our world cannot be solved by individual nations alone and that there is an urgency to committing to shared global values that reflect the OHWB concept and approach. By drawing on our collective experience and expertise informed by the UN-2030 SDGs, we will be in a much stronger position to shape and strengthen multilateral strategies to achieve the UN-2030 Transformative Vision – “ending poverty, hunger, inequality and protecting the Earth’s natural resources,” and thereby helping “to save the world from itself.”

This study aims to explore the propensity of adoption of ICT‐based facilities by hotels in the hospitality sector.

The factors that influence a hotel's propensity to adopt ICTs are broadly divided into location‐related and firm‐related. The relative impact of the factors on the ICT adoption propensity was analyzed through a survey amongst 95 hotels from seven locations in Thailand.

The findings give valuable insights for the marketers of ICTs who wish to gain entry into the hotel sector, and help them in better focusing their sales and marketing efforts.

The study provides researchers and suppliers of ICT‐based facilities with a framework for predicting the adoption propensity of potential customers.

Today, amid a global pandemic, the world is changing rapidly. This bought a sense of urgency to adopt this change for the sustainability of both individual and corporate existence. The name given to the future world on the brink of this change and transformation is VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity). COVID-19 pandemic exposed leadership teams to novel challenges that required many changes to their practices. This has been the most volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) times in healthcare. VUCA software technologies that connect different geographies of the world over the Internet have provided institutions with standardization, harmonization, and acceleration. Understanding the VUCA world, adapting to it, focusing on the opportunities rather than the challenges it brings are the basis of sustainability. In order to increase or maintain the level of development of the countries, it is possible with the health institutions to provide a quality service and the development of standardization based on the VUCA approach. This global pandemic has clearly affected healthcare systems and workers throughout the world, with many worse affected than others. This chapter aimed to give information about the importance of why health managers should provide services based on the VUCA approach.

Some authors have alerted on the state of crisis generated by Covid-19 in the tourism industry worldwide. The restrictive measures disposed by governments generated not only an unparalleled economic crisis but also serious social maladies in society and education (i.e., higher dropout rates and low academic grades). Needless to say that the tourism education was in crisis much time earlier than the Covid-19 pandemic. Echoing Sigala and Ratten, the authors hold the pungent thesis that Covid-19 introduced a new opportunity to reform the epistemology and the basis of the tourism education curricula. Centerd on the role played by pleasure and joy, which is boosted by the digital technologies, this chapter synthesizes the findings of PANCOE, a successful experiment conducted by the University of Palermo, Argentina, to reduce the dropout rates while improving students’ academic performance. The experiment was drawn and applied in the years before and after the pandemic. Results show how pleasure plays a vital role giving students better opportunities in contexts of fear and deprivation.

Hotel labour costs in Malaysia are increasing. This paper aims to explore Langkawi hotel managers’ perceptions about reducing labour costs using various information and communication technology (ICT) innovations.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers from 19 budget and boutique resorts on Langkawi Island, Malaysia. Qualitative data were recorded, transcribed and content analysed using latent coding.

All hotel managers reported using some form of ICT. The purpose for ICT adoption found was to increase productivity and efficiency. A hotel’s customer mix, the need of the organization and the technology budget available influenced the outcome of technological innovation. Langkawi hotels had successfully implemented Property Management Systems (PMSs), but self-check-in/out kiosks were not seen as important as they do not meet their customers’ service expectations.

This study identifies some factors influencing uptake by hotels of technological innovations. This initial qualitative exploration of the technology adoption feasibility in Langkawi suggests that implementation to reduce labour cost is more likely for employee-operated devices rather than customer-operated devices.

This study contributes to the human resource (HR) management literature by providing insight into the reasons hotel managers introduce technology in a developing country context. Results suggests that hotels face challenges in reducing labour costs through technology. These insights may serve to guide policymakers and hotel managers in other developing countries that are planning to use technology to solve their HR issues. Luxury hotels can consider adopting ICT for back-of-the-house operations such as using a HR information system within the HR department and PMS for the hotel overall operation.

These findings can increase the Malaysians awareness of ICT importance, especially in the hotel industry.

The Malaysian national minimum wage order policy was introduced in 2012. This policy has resulted in increased labour costs and suggests a need to adopt ICT. This paper is the first to examine the viewpoints of hotel practitioners as to the viability of this strategy. Whilst many studies on the adoption of ICT in the hotel industry focus on its impact on productivity and firm’s performance using quantitative methods, this study used qualitative methods to explore hotel managers’ perceptions on its feasibility to reduce dependence on labour.

Critical digital pedagogy (CDP) is an emerging field in education. The basic tenet of CDP involves taking learners' experiences into account and engaging them in critical thinking about social oppression. With the outbreak of the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, CDP has got more currency and appropriacy in the current paradigm shift in learning and teaching.

This paper scrutinizes different aspects of CDP including its origins, theoretical underpinnings and its implementation in different contexts. It also critically reviews Freire's (1972) problem-posing education and Morris and Stommel's (2017) model of CDP.

The article proposes a CDP model based on the previous ones, which includes the core concepts and criteria of CDP and focuses on EFL classrooms.

One of the limitations of CDP is gaining the learners' approval in creating an environment of co-constructing knowledge moving away from traditional practices. In addition to that, the use of new media in the classroom can be intimidating for students and stakeholders alike. The lack of logistic support in many rural, remote and underdeveloped contexts cannot be ignored either

The paper provides recommendations for future research in CDP.

Critical pedagogy (CP) is a teaching approach in which the oppressed are basically focused and teachers and learners construct knowledge together. Recently, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, global education had to go online. Consequently, traditional teaching and learning had to undergo a paradigm shift. Along with other changes in traditional teaching and learning practices, there has been a significant change in teaching philosophy. This is how the CDP finds its currency in this emerging unprecedented teaching and learning situation.

Emerging technologies have the capacity to transform industries offering substantial benefits to users. Given the increasing demand for advanced logistics services, third-party logistic service providers (LSPs) face greater pressure to deploy and realise these technologies, especially given the demands and operational challenges created during the COVID-19 crisis. Drawing upon the diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory and technology–organisation–environment (TOE) framework, this paper goes beyond just identifying drivers and barriers to technology adoption to understanding how LSPs and industry experts perceive these drivers and barriers and simultaneously confront and undertake actions to implement them.

An exploratory study was conducted in three phases: (1) in-depth interviews with twelve stakeholders in the Australian logistics industry; (2) five in-depth interviews conducted with stakeholders during the COVID-19 crisis and (3) a focus group discussion session. All interviews were analysed using content analysis and revealed several drivers for the deployment of emerging technologies, including internal organisational factors that drive supply chain (SC) network optimisation.

The analysis of the three phases identified several drivers for the deployment of emerging technologies in logistics, including internal organisational factors that drive SC network optimisation. Also identified were external drivers including the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, along with barriers and specific actions that were considered and implemented by LSPs for sustainable operations, particularly in a post-COVID-19 environment.

This study explores organisational and industry drivers for the implementation of emerging technologies. Explicitly, it extends the extant research by highlighting organisational and industry drivers and enablers that influence adoption and deployment of emerging technologies. Second, it advances the existing perspectives on LSPs in the Australian context on the development and implementation of technology strategies. The paper offers insights around implementation of technologies, directly obtained from industrial application for managers and practitioners.