Abstract  SMEs’ survival and performance continue to be a central concern for strategy experts. There are numerous factors that affect the SMEs’ survival for new entrants in the industry. This study incorporates research on the survival and performance of new entrant SMEs in a relationship with initial capital investment, experience, R&D, and innovation culture. We examined the influence of the SMEs’ initial investment, experience, R&D, and innovation culture on its survival and performance guided by the evolutionary model of entry and exit to conclude whether these are positively related to each other. Further, we investigated moderated role of innovation culture between initial capital, experience, R&D, and firm performance. The outcomes of this study established on a large size sample of 337 SMEs suggest that firms with a large initial investment, prior experience, and R&D have higher probabilities of survival and economic performance and innovation culture strengthens the relationship between predictor and outcome constructs.

Abstract Successful institutional and technological innovations are critical for smart city governance. The intrinsic complexity that characterizes institutional and technological innovations in smart cities is examined in this paper. A city’s ability to innovate is heavily reliant on its technology and its ability to deploy it. This paper goes beyond the direct connections between smart city governance and stakeholder satisfaction and smart city governance and crime rate by proposing that institutional and technological innovation play a moderating role in these relationships. Multiple regression models were developed by surveying 214 Pakistani public and private citizens with a questionnaire. Using stakeholders and innovation theories, an analysis of the relationships between smart governance, stakeholder satisfaction, and city crime rates reveals a moderating role of institutional and technological innovation.

Abstract The fundamental goal of this research is to investigate the quantitative relationship between technology-oriented knowledge management, innovation, e-governance, and smart city performance using knowledge management-based service science theory and diffusion of innovation theory. Previous research has found a connection between knowledge management, innovation, e-governance, and e-service delivery. We believe that these are not only direct connections but also contextual and interactive relationships, so we explored the significance of innovation as a mediator between knowledge management and e-service delivery. Furthermore, we investigated the moderating impact of e-governance on the relationship between innovation and e-service delivery. Using SPSS to analyze data from 569 participants in South Korea, Pakistan, Japan, and Bangladesh, we discovered that these direct relationships are contextual in the sense that innovation mediates the relationship between knowledge management and e-service delivery and e-governance moderates the correlation between innovation and e-service delivery. Based on the outcomes from quantitative analysis, all our proposed hypotheses in this study were supported significantly.

Chinese digital enterprises e.g., Baidu, Alibaba and ByteDance (known for Toutiao and TikTok) contribute greatly to the expansion of China’s global presence and influence as a digital powerhouse, adding a ‘social’ dimension to China’s soft power (Yu, 2019). China’s latest tool for cultivating soft power, TikTok, has been attracting much attention. Unlike most research on social media as a country’s soft power toolkit, this research looks at TikTok not for its contents or the range of actors in communicating with foreign audiences; but rather as a technological company subjected to a ban in India and a potential ban in the US. To understand how the Sino-Indian and Sino-US disputes about TikTok are framed in news coverage and its potential relevance to China’s growing digital capabilities, the research conducts inductive frame analysis on TikTok dispute news coverage in leading national papers in the US (The New York Times), India (The Times of India) and in China’s global English language news outlet China Daily.

Abstract Law implementation seems to be a little-explored phenomenon, despite the reality that it has become abundantly obvious that law implementation is influenced by various factors prevalent in the country, and such factors can influence and hinder potential legislative implementation. This study examines a few of the key factors that influence cybersecurity law implementation in emerging economies such as Pakistan. Managers from banking and IT firms were surveyed about the law’s implementation factors that could affect its implementation. The prominence of corruption, which is a significant obstacle to cybersecurity law implementation, appeared to be the most influencing factor in Pakistan. The findings from a sample of 172 respondents employing IBM SPSS 23.0 revealed that corruption, discrimination, illicit conduct, and ambiguity appeared to have a significant negative influence on cybersecurity law implementation, whereas expertise and public confidence emerged to have a significant positive influence on the implementation of cybersecurity laws in Pakistan.

Abstract The ultimate purpose that entrepreneurs of small and medium enterprises should endeavor for is to achieve a sustained competitive advantage over their competitors. The objective of this study was to investigate the significance of, and emphasis put on dynamic, valuable, rare, inimitable, heterogenous, and non-substitutable managerial capabilities in their links with sustained competitive advantage for the firm. Overall, the findings demonstrated strong, substantial, and positive effects of dynamic capabilities on sustained competitive advantage, providing support, evidence, and substantiation to the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm. The standard multiple linear regression model accounted for 87.3 percent of the variation in sustained competitive advantage. In essence, the research findings not only extended to the literature on the correlation between dynamic capabilities and competitive advantage, but also presented critical information to both policymakers and experts on the subject.

Abstract Given the mixed findings on the direct relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and financial performance, researchers have strived to determine whether the relationship is context-dependent. This study examines whether perceived corruption measures such as institutional quality and law enforcement (IQLE) and internal compliance and ethical management (ICEM) moderate the relationship between CSR and financial performance by applying the corruption framework. The findings revealed that IQLE has a negative moderating impact on the positive relationship between CSR and financial performance. This study also discovered that ICEM, as a moderator, helps to strengthen the positive relationship between CSR and financial performance.

ABSTRACT Although teachers of color (TOC) are often assumed to be better suited to serve students of color, little is known about how TOC navigate to such settings and what motivates them to stay. In this exploratory study, TOC in Los Angeles County high schools were interviewed about their career pathways, identities, and sense of fit. Participants were most driven to serve students with whom they shared compounded traits beyond race, like having the same ethnic/cultural identities and hometowns, and similar experiences with poverty. Additionally, TOC had to shed their own assumptions of congruence in order to grow in the profession.

Fifty hypertensive male and female patients between the ages 35 and 65, seeking medical assistance at Maluti Adventist Hospital in the Berea district were purposively selected and interviewed using structured questionnaires. Only patients diagnosed with hypertension who gave their consent by signing consent forms were interviewed. The questionnaire design was informed by the objectives of the study and some constructs of the health belief model as the theoretical foundation of the study. Socio-demographic factors including age, gender, educational level and occupation were identified. Moreover, knowledge, perceptions and barriers regarding dietary compliance for hypertension were assessed. The data was checked and cleared for completeness before analysis.

When science as a governance technique is applied and rationalized in social governance, educational improvement studies play their core role in educational governance. Recently, Improvement Science in Education (ISE) has introduced a large number of research paradigms, including critical, participatory, advocacy, and emancipatory paradigms. This paper proposes that the ISE lacks a vigilant paradigm as a postmodern way of thinking. Through the deconstruction of the concept of “progress”, this paper attempts to propose the important role of postmodern thinking in the construction of ISE. This article argues that the secular meaning of “progress” is tacitly accepted and ignored in the science of educational improvement. Moreover, this paper develops Derrida’s theory of political vigilance by introducing Taoist thought to the ISE.

YouTube is known as one of the largest online video repositories and is used in many domains. However, even though it is commonly used for educational purposes, the aims of an educator and YouTube may not coincide. The educator wants learners to watch only what is needed and proceed to their practical work. YouTube, on the other hand, focuses on maximizing revenue. Therefore, videos with low popularity are generally not being recommended. Such low-popularity videos may actually be helpful to the learner had they been recommended. This is known as serendipity or long-tail recommendation. This paper aims to first understand how serendipitous YouTube recommendations are. Second, to analyze how sentiment polarity affects recommendations. Third, to provide a clustering and video recommendation as an alternative to YouTube recommendations, focusing on learning. The result of this research shows that, first, YouTube recommendations lack serendipity but include sentiment along with other factors. Second, the sentiment polarity has an effect on serendipity. The exclusion of dislike counts would make the recommendation favor view counts. The inclusion of dislike counts increases the serendipity factor in the recommendation list. Third, the research utilizes k-means for video clustering with like-to-dislike ratios. This feature recommends more serendipitous videos than the default YouTube recommendation. These results improve academic video recommendations on YouTube.

In an educational environment focused on student learning, class participation and feedback are key to improving students’ performance. Class participation grading methods are often unclear and subjective, so providing feedback on class participation grades is challenging for lecturers. The Work-In-Class Assessment Tool (WICAT) we designed enables instructors not only to grade class participation clearly and objectively but also to provide students with weekly feedback on this class participation grades. This paper aims to analyze the effect of WICAT class participation grades and weekly feedback on students’ final exam performance. We conducted an experiment with 699 accounting students over the 2016-2019 period. Our results show that students whose class participation grade was obtained through WICAT performed better on the final exam. Furthermore, our results suggest that a student assessed by WICAT was 2.28 times less likely to fail the final exam. However, the weekly feedback that WICAT allowed seemed not to affect students’ performance. These results have important implications for curriculum designers and teaching staff on how to design course syllabuses and where to focus in-class efforts.

Thanks for taking the time to review my handwriting. This article, as it is extracted from my master's thesis, cannot retell all the details of the research as it should, so I have to make a few points. It is natural that you do not see anything from the political and theological context of Iran here, because a wide range of analysis has been used in this research. The details that should have been mentioned are fully described in the analyzes, which are the bridge between description and explanation. Due to the large volume of content, it is not allowed to be presented in the number of pages, if necessary, I can send you some samples of analysis. As for the introductory sentences, I have to say that it is a ground for discussion, and CDA is the basis of my writing, and this cannot be concealed, but keep in mind that my analyzes are novel. Sufficient explanations are provided on how to introduce and select channels and groups. By focusing on the code and its set, the reader will understand where the analysis was headed and what results were drawn from it. Regarding the research method, I must say that the quality of the content has been measured with the help of its quantitative expression, as you know, the Fairclough method is a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods.

A document by Ahmed M. Gad. Click on the document to view its contents.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) are vital to the development of smart cities and have a substantial impact on the delivery of smart services. The primary objective of this study is to provide substantial support for the notion that AI and IoT have a significant impact on the delivery of smart services in smart cities, as well as how smart administration in smart cities mediates this relationship. Government leaders and decision-makers around the world are vigorously changing and implementing dynamic policies to administer healthcare, education, infrastructure and disaster management, and other government services, particularly in backlash to the unique COVID-19 pandemic. It is now more essential than ever to comprehend how developed and emergent AI and IoT technologies might assist smart city administration in delivering smart services. We examined our hypotheses using data from 550 university graduate students in SPSS 26 and discovered that deploying AI and IoT in smart cities has a significant positive impact on smart service delivery and that this direct relationship is substantially mediated by the smart city administration.

Using the hashtag #CapitolInsurrectionHoax on Twitter as a case study, this research examines how a specific alt-right narrative of January 6th evolved into a discursive network, and whether it remained marginalized or became mainstream in MAGA communities.

Repair describes the process through which participants in conversation address problems in speaking, understanding, and hearing. In interactions with AI-driven chatbots, repair helps users clarify their intents and addresses problems in understanding intent experienced by chatbots. This paper represents the first attempt to describe repair strategies in a task-oriented text-based chatbot from a user-centred perspective. It is based on the analysis of simulated user interactions with a chatbot facilitating health appointment bookings. The analysis shows that the self-repair strategies which users draw on most frequently (e.g. rephrasing) are not necessarily the ones which prompt the bot to provide relevant responses, whereas more successful self-repair strategies (e.g. restating the intent) tend to be more opaque to users and thus used relatively infrequently. This suggest that the notion of communicative competence needs to be re-thought for conversational AI and that communication skills for AI need to be taught explicitly.

Abstract Despite the expected dissolution of the informal sector with growth, the ongoing emergence and expansion of this sector, especially in developing countries like India, has raised a vibrant theoretical and empirical discussion. This paper aims to survey the vast existing literature on the informal sector in India, focusing on sectoral and intra-sectoral aspects such as firm structure, market structure, and firm dynamics. From the literature, we could identify that competition, or lack of it, happens to be a crucial issue in analyzing the above-mentioned aspects. Contrary to this emphasis on the competition by both the orthodox and heterodox discourses, we try to identify the role of intra and extra-firm collaboration in the context of firm structure, market structure, and firm dynamics. However, the role of collaboration in these aspects is largely under-researched in the existing literature and thus could be a potential scope of future research in the informal sector.