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The study aimed at analyzing operations managers’ perception of the use of electric vehicles (EVs) in business processes and its impact on overall business process cost (BPC) and sustainable development (SD).

The present study adopts the triangulation approach which is a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. The data was collected using structured and scientifically tested questionnaires from the industrial managers working in the industries in the Mysore region of Karnataka. Descriptive statistics, factor analysis and structural equation models were employed to analyze and interpret the data.

The findings revealed that the usage of EVs in Business Processes significantly impacts the BPC (b = 0.851, t = 8.037, p < 0.01) and it is also the usage of EVs in business processes can significantly impact SD (b = 0.889, t = 7.923, p < 0.01). Thus, the adoption of EVs in the business process offers many benefits to business organizations such as minimized operational costs, an eco-friendly business model, more tax incentives, less BPCs, a low-emission footprint and a contribution towards SD at large.

Many business organizations operating in the present time show interest in employing EVs in their business processes. Hence, before introducing EVs in industries on a large scale, it becomes imperative to obtain the perception of industrial managers who have already experienced its impact. This study may help industrial organizations to understand the impact of EV on various aspects of the business and to design a business model which would help in achieving SD goals.

The use of EVs in the daily life of human beings and business activities is gaining importance because of the various positive impacts. Therefore, it is necessary to understand industrial managers’ opinions regarding the use of EV in business activities.

This study aims to examine the effects of climate change and agricultural technologies on crop production in Vietnam for the period 1990–2018.

Several econometric techniques – such as the augmented Dickey–Fuller, Phillips–Perron, the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds test, variance decomposition method (VDM) and impulse response function (IRF) are used for the empirical analysis.

The results of the ARDL bounds test confirm the significant dynamic relationship among the variables under consideration, with a significance level of 1%. The primary findings indicate that the average annual temperature exerts a negative influence on crop yield, both in the short term and in the long term. The utilization of fertilizer has been found to augment crop productivity, whereas the application of pesticides has demonstrated the potential to raise crop production in the short term. Moreover, both the expansion of cultivated land and the utilization of energy resources have played significant roles in enhancing agricultural output across both in the short term and in the long term. Furthermore, the robustness outcomes also validate the statistical importance of the factors examined in the context of Vietnam.

This study provides persuasive evidence for policymakers to emphasize advancements in intensive agriculture as a means to mitigate the impacts of climate change. In the research, the authors use average annual temperature as a surrogate measure for climate change, while using fertilizer and pesticide usage as surrogate indicators for agricultural technologies. Future research can concentrate on the impact of ICT, climate change (specifically pertaining to maximum temperature, minimum temperature and precipitation), and agricultural technological improvements that have an impact on cereal production.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine how climate change and technology effect crop output in Vietnam from 1990 to 2018. Various econometrics tools, such as ARDL modeling, VDM and IRF, are used for estimation.

This study aims to investigate how online teaching of faculty members is affected by technological readiness (TR) of using online teaching platforms. The study sheds light on how many faculty members were ready to use different online platforms during COVID-19 period.

This study used TR measures to determine the impact of optimism regarding the perceived usefulness and ease of usage, impact of innovativeness in terms of perceived usability and ease of use, the influence of discomfort on perceived usefulness and ease of usage, the effect of uncertainty on perceived usefulness and ease of use and the influence of perceived usefulness and ease of use on behavior. An online questionnaire survey was conducted among 255 faculty members of different private universities of Bangladesh. The sample was chosen based on a convenience method. The responses were analyzed using partial least square (PLS) approach with the help of software Smart PLS 3.

The finding supported all of the hypotheses except that discomfort and insecurity have a positive relationship with ease of use and usefulness.

The study will help faculty members in developing their competency in using technologies in their pedagogy. Also, this study will provide some guidelines to the university management in developing adequate technological infrastructure to aid teaching.

The aim of the study was to investigate the faculty members' readiness level with respect to online teaching. The technology assessment model (TAM) was used to determine the readiness index. The study intended to validate the hypotheses regarding the extent to which the faculty members perceived that TAM factors affect Ease of Use and Usefulness of online teaching. Also, this research analyzed the perception of faculty members that Ease of Using online teaching affects its Usefulness. Lastly, the study examined how their perception of Ease of Use and Usefulness affect Intention to Use online as a mode of teaching. It was found from the study that each of the TAM factors, Optimism, Innovativeness, Insecurity and Discomfort has positive and significant contribution on the Ease of Use. On the other hand, Optimism, Innovativeness, Insecurity and Discomfort have positive and significant contributions on the Usefulness. The study also revealed that Ease of Use has positive and significant contribution on the Usefulness. Lastly, it was found that Ease of Use and Usefulness have positive and significant contribution on the Intention to use. Teaching remotely is still a novel concept, and it is more difficult for people who have not done it before. Many teachers became burned out as a result of trying to adjust to new teaching methods, especially after the lockdown began. They were having a difficult time since there was so much ambiguity. When a teacher is well-versed in communication tools, it can improve learning efficiency. When they are properly trained, deploying engaging features of virtual learning, such as audio-visual lessons, quizzes, and so on, becomes simple, and students become eager to learn more. Teachers can plan their classes, prepare and master technology and create innovative and stimulating discussion topics (Mishra et al., 2020). They need to utilize a variety of technological options. They can rehearse virtual classroom management with colleagues if they face any difficulty. All of the aforementioned abilities can be honed with the assistance of an integrated academic system. Teachers can be trained by educational institutions to ensure a smooth learning process through the use of ICT (information and communication technologies) (Scherer et al., 2021; Mishra et al., 2020). The training will assist teachers in efficiently taking online classes. Institutions should ensure that teachers are well-suited to teach online and are skilled at keeping students engaged during remote learning. To make every chapter engaging, aspects such as videos, slides, images and digital copies of books and workbooks can be used. This allows students to receive personalized support and counseling in order to maintain their motivation (Sahu et al., 2022; Lapitan et al., 2021). Every other day, group doubt resolution classes ensure that there are no gaps in learning (Lapitan et al., 2021). All teachers require is a digital mindset, the appropriate tools and a committed approach (Sahu et al., 2022). If teachers can hold their students' attention, they can easily deliver an effective learning experience (Lapitan et al., 2021).

This study was conducted to identify technological preparedness of faculty members of private universities in Bangladesh during COVID-19 period. Some studies were there to assess such kind of preparedness but none of those used TAM and technology readiness model either in isolation or in combination. Also, this paper focused on teachers' readiness in contrast to students' readiness specific to private universities.

This study aims to explore how businesswomen running micro and small enterprises (MSEs) use social media (SM) to engage customers. The study also investigates how SM (vs traditional media) and customer engagement improve business performance.

This qualitative study is based on interviews with businesswomen.

Businesswomen use SM actively but not effectively. SM are used primarily for advertising and promotion. External factors, such as family and friends, are more influential in the decision of women to use SM in business. Women mostly use defensive rather than offensive strategies. Effective use of SM in conjunction with conventional marketing tools can improve customer engagement and increase business performance.

The research findings are valuable for marketing managers, women entrepreneurs and micro and small businesses in making decisions to effectively use SM.

This study investigates customer engagement from the owner/manager’s perspective in contrast to the general customer-centric approach. The study contributes analysing an important and scarcely explored area, which is the use of SM by women-run MSEs in less developed countries to engage consumers.

Este estudio explora cómo las mujeres de negocios que dirigen micro y pequeñas empresas (MSE) utilizan las redes sociales para atraer a los clientes. El estudio también investiga cómo las redes sociales (frente a los medios tradicionales) y la involucración de los clientes mejoran el rendimiento empresarial.

Este estudio cualitativo se basa en entrevistas con mujeres empresarias.

Las mujeres empresarias utilizan las redes sociales de forma activa, pero no eficaz. Las redes sociales se utilizan principalmente para la publicidad y la promoción. Los factores externos, como la familia y los amigos, influyen más en la decisión de las mujeres de utilizar las redes sociales en los negocios. Las empresarias utilizan sobre todo estrategias defensivas en lugar de ofensivas. El uso eficaz de las redes sociales junto con las herramientas de marketing convencionales puede mejorar el compromiso de los clientes y aumentar el rendimiento de la empresa.

Los resultados de la investigación son valiosos para las directivas de marketing, las mujeres empresarias y las micro y pequeñas empresas a la hora de tomar decisiones y para utilizar eficazmente las redes sociales.

Este estudio investiga el compromiso del cliente desde la perspectiva del propietario/gerente en contraste con el enfoque general centrado en el cliente. El estudio contribuye a analizar un área importante y escasamente explorada, que es el uso de las redes sociales por parte de las microempresas dirigidas por mujeres en los países menos desarrollados para involucrar a los consumidores.

本研究探讨了经营微型和小型企业（MSEs）的女商人如何使用社交媒体来吸引客户。该研究还调查了社交媒体（相对于传统媒体）和客户参与如何提高企业绩效。

这项定性研究是基于对女商人的采访。

女商人积极使用社交媒体, 但并非有效。社交媒体主要用于广告和推广。外部因素, 如家庭和朋友, 对妇女在商业中使用社交媒体的决定更有影响力。女性大多使用防御性而非进攻性策略。将社交媒体与传统的营销工具有效地结合起来使用, 可以提高客户的参与度, 增加企业的业绩。

研究结果对营销经理、女企业家和小微企业做出有效使用社交媒体的决定很有价值。

本研究从业主/经理的角度调查了客户参与度, 与一般的以客户为中心的方法不同。该研究有助于分析一个重要的、很少被探索的领域, 即欠发达国家的妇女经营的微型企业使用社交媒体来吸引消费者。

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the ‘real’ world and substantially impacted the virtual world and thus the Internet ecosystem. It has caused a significant exogenous shock that offers a wealth of natural experiments and produced new data about broadband, clouds, and the Internet in times of crisis. In this chapter, we characterise and evaluate the evolving impact of the global COVID-19 crisis on traffic patterns and loads and the impact of those on Internet performance from multiple perspectives. While we place a particular focus on deriving insights into how we can better respond to crises and better plan for the post-COVID-19 ‘new normal’, we analyse the impact on and the responses by different actors of the Internet ecosystem across different jurisdictions. With a focus on the USA and Europe, we examine the responses of both public and private actors, with the latter including content and cloud providers, content delivery networks, and Internet service providers (ISPs). This chapter makes two contributions: first, we derive lessons learned for a future post-COVID-19 world to inform non-networking spheres and policy-making; second, the insights gained assist the networking community in better planning for the future.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the influence of sustainable business models in building corporate reputation and resilience. Specifically, the financial performance of listed companies will be evaluated following the beginning of the armed conflict in Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Taking as a standpoint the triple bottom line (TBL) theory, the case of firms listed in the Spanish IBEX-35 index is analysed. The present paper evaluates financial performance and corporate reputation, based on the usage of Environment, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) strategies to adhere to their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

To achieve this goal, energy firms operating in Spain are evaluated. Specifically, companies operating in the energy sector listed in the IBEX35, benchmark index of Spain’s largest trading platform are considered. The analysis comprises evaluating the fluctuation in the value of their stock and the influence of usage of renewable and other power sources that limit dependency on foreign events. In addition, communication and dissemination of non-financial information, and usage of international standards within these areas, are considered as well.

Results show long-term CSR commitments and ESG strategies significantly impact firm’s ability to overcome crises and improve financial performance. Additionally, energy firms that adhered to the energy transition into renewables display stronger performance and lower dependency on uncertain and weakened markets during the Ukraine armed conflict.

The results contribute to the advancement of the TBL theory and the creation of sustainable business models. By introducing ESG strategies, firms are able to improve the people-profit-planet balance and at the same time improve their resilience. This contributes to an overall enhancement of their capacity to overcome crises and sustain their financial performance and corporate reputation over time. Policy makers can also benefit from this knowledge, introducing regulation that promotes and supports companies’ development of their CSR through ESG strategies, to ensure more sustainable organisations that can support the economy in a context of hardship.

The analysis evaluates the results of a firm’s long-term commitment to the TBL through adequate ESG strategies when operating in unexpected and unprecedented hostile environments. Previous research has focused on the link between some variables concerning financial performance and ESG strategies yet not considering the specific context of an enhanced crisis (i.e. a pandemic and armed conflict). This can provide significant insight into the contribution that people, profit and planet can provide in building sustainable and successful organisations. Lastly, the paper outlines the key factors that contributed to the firm’s ability to overcome extreme hardships, such as operating in an environment affected by a combination of two crises.

The purpose of this paper is to report on performance measurement and impact assessment progress made in 14 countries as part of the Global Libraries initiative, starting with the early country grants in Mexico and Chile. For the mature grants in Bulgaria, Botswana, Poland, Romania, Ukraine and Viet Nam which were recently completed or are approaching completion, the nature of the country program is outlined, before the impact assessment work is described and some recent results and conclusions are reported. A similar approach is adopted with pilot and new grants in Colombia, Indonesia, South Africa, Turkey and Lithuania.

The country reports are presented as a series of case studies, in some cases supplementing those in an earlier special issue of this journal.

Where appropriate, recent country-specific survey findings are reported.

This paper shares Global Libraries IPA learning at country level with people in other countries who may be contemplating public library evaluation at regional, national or local level or who are interested in performance measurement and impact evaluation.

These cases studies reflect concentrated impact assessment and performance measurement work at country level across a range of countries over more than 12 years.

The study examined the influence of humanitarian organizations’ culture and financial service providers’ technology readiness on the usage of digital cash-based assistance by humanitarian organizations, the influence of Humanitarian Organization Culture on Financial providers’ technology readiness and the mediating role of financial service providers’ technology readiness on the relationship between the culture in humanitarian organizations and their usage of digital cash-based assistance.

A quantitative cross-sectional survey design was used. The target population consisted of humanitarian organizations that were members of the Uganda Cash Consortium (UCC). The research hypotheses were tested using SMART PLS version 4.

The culture in humanitarian organizations and financial service providers’ technology readiness positively influences the usage of digital cash-based assistance by humanitarian organizations during humanitarian crises, and humanitarian organizations’ culture positively influences financial service providers’ technology readiness. Financial service providers’ technology readiness fully mediates the relationship between the culture of humanitarian organizations and the usage of digital cash-based assistance by humanitarian organizations during humanitarian crises.

The study mainly focuses on culture in humanitarian organizations and financial service providers’ technology readiness when examining the usage of digital cash-based assistance during humanitarian crises. Further, financial service providers’ technology readiness is examined using a humanitarian organization, financial service provider and beneficiary/persons of concern’s point of view rather than the government’s point of view.

Research examining determinants for digital cash-based assistance usage in humanitarian crises is scarce. Further, empirical research examining the influence of the humanitarian organizations’ culture and financial service providers’ technology readiness in promoting the usage of digital cash-based assistance in humanitarian crises, the impact of humanitarian organizations’ culture on financial service providers’ technology readiness and the mediating role of financial service providers’ technology readiness on the relationship between the culture of humanitarian organizations and usage of digital cash-based assistance in humanitarian crises are non-existent. The majority of research and grey literature focuses on how digital cash-based transfers can be used to enhance financial inclusion in refugee contexts.

Several different factors have an influence on the hotel sector in Jordan. Due to the different circumstances and the turbulence in this region, hotels face a competitive and dynamic economic environment, which causes these hotels to seek differentiation. Consequently, hotels need different strategies and support from information technology to achieve a competitive advantage. The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which enterprise resource planning ERP system usage affects service differentiation in the hotel sector in Jordan and examine the mediating effect of organizational agility on the aforementioned relationship.

Questionnaires were used to collect data from the hotel sector in Jordan. The response percentage was 75.41%.

The result showed that there is a significant effect of ERP system usage on service differentiation in Jordanian hotels, and this relationship was mediated by organizational agility. Organizational agility and its dimensions have a partial mediating role on the relationship between ERP system usage and service differentiation except for responsiveness which has a full mediating role. So, being an agile hotel will increase the ability to achieve service differentiation by using ERP systems.

This research focuses on investigating the mediating role of organizational agility in the relationship between ERP system usage and service differentiation within hotel sector in Jordan. Moreover, this research investigated the applicability of organizational agility on the hotel sector as it is mainly implemented in the manufacturing sector. The results show that organizational agility and its dimensions have a partial mediating role on the relationship between ERP system usage and service differentiation except responsiveness which has a full mediating role. So, being an agile hotel will increase the ability to achieve service differentiation by using ERP systems. Therefore, hotel practitioners in Jordan should focus on applying the required technologies and achieving organizational agility in order to achieve service differentiation. In addition, this study highlights that ERP usage has a positive impact on achieving organizational agility and service differentiation; hence, using these systems will help hotels in Jordan to implement agility capabilities which, in turn, help to achieve service differentiation. However, there are real challenges in hotel sector as implementation of ERP is expensive and time-consuming. The outcomes of this research can have additional reference that could benefit researchers in the future and bring attention of hotel managers in Jordan to the importance and advantages of this research.

A new model has been developed. An empirical investigation was performed on the hotel sector in Jordan to test the new model.

This paper aims to provide a survey of existing literature on the economic impacts of the internet on firm development, and outlines an overall framework of the existing studies. The purpose is to show how the internet affects firm development, which may help policymakers and other researchers to have a better knowledge of existing research characteristics, problems and future directions.

The authors review the studies on the economic impacts of the internet on firm characteristics and external environment, identify the characteristics of the existing literature and problems and discuss the directions of possible future research.

The authors find that the impacts of the internet on firm development mainly display two relevant mechanisms (firm characteristics and external environment), and they can be grouped into six channels (firm innovation, firm business mode, firm performance, firm productivity, firm import and export trade and firm location selection).

This study builds up a framework of how the internet impacts on firm development, which can add value to the future research of firm intelligent transaction modes in the crowd intelligence network.