Issue #4 (Volume 21 2023)

Employees who voluntarily conduct work that surpasses the criteria allocated to them to help the company achieve its goals exhibit organizational citizenship behavior. This study aims to examine the mediation role of affective commitment and work engagement on the influence of transformational leadership on organizational citizenship behavior. This study used survey methodology. Two hundred frontline staff working over a year in several star-rated hotels in Medan, Indonesia, are used as samples. Data were collected using a Likert scale questionnaire and analyzed using structural equation modeling-part least squares with SmartPLS 4.0 software. The findings show that transformational leadership, affective commitment, and work engagement affect organizational citizenship behavior (p < 0.05). Next, transformational leadership affects affective commitment (p < 0.05) and work engagement (p < 0.05), and transformational leadership affects organizational citizenship behavior through affective commitment (p < 0.05) and work engagement (p < 0.05). The findings of this study recommend that hotel management should use a transformational leadership style when filling managerial positions. In addition, the study results have implications for businesses in terms of creating arrangements that encourage employee engagement and affective commitment, enabling workers to volunteer their time, energy, and ideas to serve their co-workers and the company. This paper helps to develop human resources to maintain the sustainability of hotel industry in Medan, Indonesia.

Acknowledgment
This study is supported by all levels of management at Universitas Muhammadiyah Sumatera Utara for funding Fundamental research in 2022 and thanks also to the ranks of the Institute of Research and Community Service (LPPM) Universitas Muhammadiyah Sumatera Utara.

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of Syrian refugee entrepreneurs operating in the Turkish textile industry on job satisfaction and organizational commitment of refugee employees. It is foreseen that refugees working informally may become permanent. This image shakes not only the social order but also the economic balance. A significant portion of refugees have a very low education level; also, Turkish society does not welcome them as they create a cheap labor force. Due to poor working conditions, they tend to change their jobs constantly. At this point, refugees’ attitude toward work and organization has been examined. The sample comprised 12 enterprises; 104 blue-collar employees, experts, and managers answered the questionnaires. All of the participants in the study were Syrian refugees. The results concluded that while there is a positive relationship between affective and normative organizational commitment and the perception of abstract talent management practice, there is a negative and weak relationship between continuance commitment with a strength of –0.169. The perception of tangible talent management practice is positively related to internal and external job satisfaction and negatively related to continuance commitment with a power of –0.157. Accordingly, Syrian refugees with a talent management perspective believe talented employees should be in their jobs to achieve their goals. Job satisfaction partially mediates between the abstract perception of talent management practices and organizational commitment.

Trade defense measures are tools that governments use to balance protecting domestic industries and ensuring that trade remains fair and open. Yet, their use requires careful consideration of their potential impacts on trade relations and the broader economy. Thus, this study aims to examine the impact of trade defense measures on the intentions of import-export businesses in Vietnam with the mediating effect of managers’ risk perceptions and management attitudes in the Vietnamese market. Data were collected from 793 managers representing import-export businesses through the Vietnam Customs Department. Using the PLS-SEM model, the study finds that trade defense measures, such as anti-dumping, anti-subsidy, and safeguard measures stipulated by foreign trade laws, influence the intention of businesses to implement them. This influence is mediated by risk perception and management attitude. Contrary to expectations, the content of trade defense measures has a reverse effect on businesses’ risk perception. This suggests that, from the perspective of import-export businesses, the perception of risk is not significantly affected by these measures in their transactions. This risk perception also has a reverse impact on the attitude of business managers. Furthermore, the study shows that the content of trade defense measures has an opposing effect on the risk perception of businesses. In other words, trade defense measures in business transactions do not significantly influence risk perception. These findings have important implications for policy development to enhance Vietnam’s foreign trade management system and valuable management suggestions for import-export business managers in the future.

Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank the Editor-in-Chief and a reviewer for their helpful comments that, in our view, have helped significantly improve the quality of the manuscript.

The underrepresentation of women in sports leadership positions raises significant concerns regarding equality and diversity. This study aims to explore the relationship between sports leadership and gender. The objective is to understand and highlight the individual, organizational, and societal factors hindering women’s progress in sports leadership roles. This paper identified 32 publications out of 157 selected references through the systematic literature review (SLR) method. The results of this meta-analysis reveal that despite their active involvement in sports, women remain inadequately represented in leadership roles. In fact, women face several challenges, including sexism, underestimation of their skills, and associating them with family constraints. Consequently, it becomes imperative to take concrete measures to promote gender equality and an equal professional development environment for both genders. Several areas for future studies could deepen the understanding of sports leadership and gender, including cross-linguistic comparisons, intersectional perspectives, longitudinal analyses, a study of male dynamics, technological impact, the evaluation of organizational policies and practices, as well as cultural comparisons.

The objective of this study is to examine whether employees’ reactions to organizational change can affect employees’ turnover intentions at private hospitals in Jordan, as well as a moderating impact of emotional intelligence on this relationship. The analysis is quantitative, using a questionnaire that was distributed online among private hospital employees. A total of 408 respondents completed the questionnaires and were included in the analysis. The results of the first hypothesis testing show that β = 0.960, t = 0.69.4, p < 0.00 and prove that organizational change significantly influences employee turnover intentions. Concerning organizational change dimensions, the results of cognitive reaction were β = 0.656, t = 0.17.5, p < 0.00, for emotional reaction, β = 0.680, t = 0.31.1, p < 0.00, while for behavioral reaction, β = 0.718, t = 0.22.7, p < 0.00. Finally, moderation results show that emotional intelligence has a significant effect, thus moderating the relationship between organizational change and turnover intentions (β = 0.828, t = 0.11.3, p < 0.00).

This study explores international business integration, focusing on Colombian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It delves into the crucial aspects of competitiveness and technological capital influencing the export models of these SMEs. Using a questionnaire, responses were gathered from 63 Colombian SMEs exporting to 74 countries with 333 tariff positions. This analysis examines competitiveness factors like innovation, productivity, and business structure, as well as technological capital components such as R&D management, technological processes, and equipment, all tailored to the context of Colombian SMEs. The findings establish a comprehensive model elucidating direct and indirect relationships among these variables. They underscore the importance of strengthening competitiveness elements, particularly the infusion of technology into process and product innovation, alongside productivity and business structure rooted in the value derived from information technologies. Simultaneously, the study highlights the importance of nurturing employees’ physical, financial, and language skills within Colombian SMEs. This study accentuates the pivotal role of investment in technological capital aspects, including research and development management, personnel, and leveraging information technology, especially within Colombian SMEs. These investments are instrumental in augmenting performance and ensuring success in the international business arena. The paper contributes to both theoretical understanding and practical applications in enhancing the international competitiveness of Colombian SMEs.

This study examines the impact of digital capabilities and digital orientation on the digital transformation and digital innovation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, this study assesses how the role of digital transformation and digital innovation mediates the relationship between digital capabilities, digital orientation, and SME performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a sample of 247 SMEs managers, data were analyzed using the structural equation modeling with a partial least square approach. The findings demonstrate the significant and positive influence of digital capability and orientation on SMEs’ digital transformation and innovation during the pandemic. Additionally, the study confirms that digital transformation and innovation positively affect SMEs’ performance during the pandemic. Furthermore, the study reveals that digital transformation and innovation mediate the relationship between digital orientation and capability on SMEs’ performance during the pandemic. However, digital innovation was not found to significantly mediate the link between digital capability and SMEs’ performance.

Worker empowerment is one of the main objectives of any organization. The purpose of the current study is to examine the impact of transformational leadership on organizational trust (trust in coworkers, trust in organization management, and trust in supervisors). In addition, it examines whether workers’ empowerment moderates the mentioned impact. An analytical descriptive approach was adopted, and a survey collected relevant data. A stratified random sample included 294 department managers, branch managers, and heads of departments who work in Jordanian telecommunications companies (Zain, Orange, and Umniah). The study employed SPSS and AMOS 21 for data analysis and hypotheses testing. The paper revealed a significant impact of transformational leadership on organizational trust, except for the ideal influence and inspirational motivation dimensions. Furthermore, workers’ empowerment significantly moderates the impact of transformational leadership on organizational trust at Jordan’s telecommunications companies (Zain, Orange, and Umniah).
The study recommends improving transformational leadership methods in telecom businesses as one of the most critical administrative leadership techniques. It is vital to ensure the continuation of telecom business leaders in these companies to foster organizational trust between company workers and administrative leaders. Additionally, future studies should find new funding sources, identify practical ways to put strategies into practice for intellectual stimulation and arousal in these companies, and conduct more studies on transformational leadership, organizational trust, and empowerment.

University internship is the transition between higher education and the labor market. The study was motivated by the fact that research on the effectiveness of internships is on the rise in many countries but is less widespread in Hungary, especially from the students’ perspective. The aim is to determine how students in business education choose a workplace for their internship, whether they consider their own employability or the management aspects of the workplace. The questionnaire was conducted in Budapest, Hungary, covering covering higher education institutions of economics (7 in total), with 406 participants. The focus is to build a model of the interaction between different variables: the development of students’ skills at the university, the specific internship placement, and the desirable work students would like to do during their internship. The results show no correlation between the type of skills students develop during their studies and the type of work they want to do during their internship. Moreover, the correlation between the soft skills they develop at work and those they acquire at university is only coincidental, therefore not supporting their employability. These results can be important for workplace management to effectively lead and inspire their teams, manage conflict, and communicate. The study offers implications for education policy, i.e., recommendations for changes to output requirements, which will also allow for developing training structures that are more responsive to employer needs.

Every organization is not only faced with the challenge of recruiting employees but also of retaining talent within the organization. This study analyzes the influence of work-family conflict on millennial government employees’ turnover intention and determines how job embeddedness and job stress can be a mediator in this case. This paper used a questionnaire to accumulate data from 419 millennial employees in the government sector in Indonesia. SEM-PLS was used to test the influence of inter-variable relations. The results of SEM tests via Smart-PLS 3 software reveal that work-family conflict has a positive and significant influence on turnover intention. Job embeddedness and stress can mediate work-family conflict on turnover intentions of millennial employees in the government sector. Furthermore, work-family conflict has a negative and significant influence on job embeddedness and a positive and significant influence on job stress. Next, job embeddedness has a negative and significant influence on turnover intentions, and job stress has a positive and significant influence on such intentions. Therefore, the Indonesian government must reduce time stress and increase the job embeddedness employees, reducing turnover intentions. In addition, the Indonesian government needs to develop a policy supporting employee work-life balance.

Acknowledgment
This study is funded by Lembaga Penelitian dan Pengabdian Masyarakat Universitas Negeri Padang. The Human Resources Management and Behavioural Research Group Faculty of Economy and Bussiness, Universitas Negeri Padang also supported this paper.

Increasing the propensity for job stress can negatively affect individuals’ job satisfaction and work productivity. Therefore, lots of organizations have tried to assess factors that can affect job stress among workers so that they can seek to develop new working policies to promote a better working environment for their staff. This study aims to investigate how job stress is influenced by these key factors (i.e., workload, work-family conflict, role conflict, performance pressure, and supervisor support). To collect the data, 649 tellers who felt pressured and frustrated with their jobs were asked to fill in the self-administered questionnaires. Next, multiple regression was used to analyze the data. The results indicated that role conflict (β = 0.45), workload (β = 0.30), work-family conflict (β = 0.23), and supervisor support (β = –0.19) significantly influenced job stress among bank tellers. At the same time, performance pressure had an insignificant effect on job stress.

This paper deals with factors affecting environmental accounting adoption and its impact on operational performance in Vietnamese seafood enterprises. The data were collected from seafood enterprises in Vietnam. Structural equation modeling was applied to explore the causal relationship between operational performance and other factors. The results show that the factors affecting the implementation of environmental accounting based on normalized weights include manager support, with the strongest impact (0.286), followed by the level of technology (0.155), qualifications of accountants (0.191), pressure from stakeholders (0.129), business characteristics (0.117), financial resources (0.113), legal regulations (0.103), and finally environmental changes (0.1). The results also show that environmental accounting implementation strongly impacts operational performance (standardized weight 0.351). The correlation relationships in the model are all statistically significant, with a 95% confidence level (p = 0.000 < 0.05). The paper contributes to perfecting the factors affecting the implementation of environmental accounting, clearly seeing its benefits and positive impacts on performance in seafood enterprises in Vietnam, to achieve environmental protection goals, increase economic benefits, and sustainable development.

Acknowledgment
This study is conducted within the framework of the doctoral project subject to Decision No. 1807/QD-ĐHDT dated May 10, 2023, Duy Tan University, Vietnam. The authors would like to acknowledge the reviewers and the editor-in-chief for their assistance.

The main constraints on SME growth in developing countries are regulations and legislation. Poor administration of environmental regulatory compliance is shown by the high number of SMEs in the manufacturing sector closing down annually in developing economies. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of administrative practices on environmental compliance by manufacturing SMEs in a developing country. This study adopted a quantitative research approach. A sample size of 215 administrative personnel and managers from manufacturing SMEs operating within Msunduzi Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, was selected. Managers and administrative personnel were selected to eliminate biased answers that favor organizations and because both may have had an opportunity to enforce administrative practices that adhere to environmental regulations. The sample size was selected using a probability sampling method. The study shows that respondents agree that environmental compliance is a mandatory practice for SMEs in the manufacturing sector. Although results show that SMEs are complying with environmental regulations, they still face challenges. The study further demonstrates a disregard for the organization and storage of assessment reports by administrative personnel working in manufacturing SMEs.

The implementation of innovative renewable energy projects is designed to meet the growing electricity demand and reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. In order to avoid resource dependence of the economy and meet the demand for electricity in remote areas of Kazakhstan, the development of renewable energy sources is urgent. The purpose of this study is to analyze the effectiveness of the implementation of existing mechanisms for the implementation of innovative renewable energy projects through auctions. Moreover, it identifies their shortcomings and offers proposals for improvement. The analysis uses data from the Kazakhstan Bureau of National Statistics on renewable energy sources, namely alternative energy sources such as solar and wind power plants, excluding biogas. The methodology provides for the assessment of projects implemented through auctions for 2018–2021, taking into account such indicators as the dynamics of the number of wind and solar energy projects, their capacity, the percentage of auction price reduction for a specific year. The paper discusses the mechanism for conducting auctions of solar and wind electricity, which, through the auction organizer, connects authorized bodies and investors. The main indicators of auctions for individual years are noted, and the main shortcomings of this mechanism are identified. The analysis of barriers to innovative renewable energy project implementation revealed the presence of contradictions in the price regulation of renewable electricity, the lack of market pricing mechanisms, and the unpreparedness of the energy infrastructure for integration with renewable sources.

Acknowledgment
This research is funded by the Science Committee of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Grant No. AP13268750).

The purpose of this study is to investigate the interplay between government initiatives, public trust in government, and citizen engagement within the context of two distinct crisis scenarios: a global health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and an international security crisis caused by Russian aggression against Ukraine. A two-stage biennial survey methodology is used to collect quantitative data. In the first phase, which took place in the context of a global health crisis, an omnibus survey was conducted, involving a randomly selected sample of 3,175 respondents from three Baltic countries: Estonia (n = 1002), Latvia (n = 1017), and Lithuania (n = 1006). In the second stage, which took place in the context of an international security crisis, a random sample was carried out of 2026 respondents from two Baltic countries: Estonia (n = 1002) and Lithuania (n = 1024). The analysis examined causal relationships in political, rational, and social trust.
The findings reveal that the relationship between trust in the government and government initiatives that foster political, rational, or emotional trust is stronger during international security crises than during health crises. This means that citizens perceive government behavior as more credible in the context of external security threats. Research on the interaction between government behavior and citizen participation is more nuanced than on public trust. In general, government initiatives have a greater impact on citizen participation than public trust in both crises. This highlights the positive impact of government initiatives in cooperation with the population.

Acknowledgment
The study is financed from the funds of the study-supporting project “Research on the Management of Security and Defense Institutions of Small States” (General Jonas Žemaitis Lithuanian Military Academy, 2020-12-17, No. V-828).

This study focuses on human resource management (HRM) practices that encourage employee engagement. It aims to explore the relationship between HRM practices and employee engagement and also investigates the moderating role of employee gender between both variables. The study applied a cross-sectional research design alongside correlational and regression analysis to evaluate the responses of 410 employees working in unicorn startups based in Gurgaon, New Delhi, and Mumbai through the structured survey questionnaires. Regarding the respondents’ gender, the majority are male (70%), and female constitutes 30%. However, the study results demonstrated that no matter an employee’s age or gender, effective HRM practices have a strong positive correlation with employee engagement (β = 0.93; p < 0.001). The results of the regression model show that HRM practices have explained 87% of the variance in employee engagement, which indicates that most of the employee engagement level depends on the best HRM practices of the organization. The gender differences do not significantly moderate this relationship. The F value in ANOVA analysis showed the overall significance of the model. The findings illustrated that by improving skills and promoting employee engagement, individuals experience heightened satisfaction levels and assume greater responsibility for their assigned duties.

Acknowledgment
This study is supported via funding from Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University project number (PSAU/2023/R/1445).

The existence and performance of enterprises in rural areas become an interesting phenomenon as a solution for community welfare. The purpose of this study is to examine social capital and transformational leadership as factors that influence village-owned enterprises’ performance and the ability to innovate as a mediator. The research population consists of 216 village-owned enterprises. Riau Province in Indonesia is the place of research focus. This study used probability sampling with area sampling or cluster sampling. Respondents were managers, secretaries, treasury, or heads of business units of each village-owned enterprises. A total of 120 respondents participated in this analysis. The research hypotheses were tested using the partial least squares-structural equation modeling. The outcomes demonstrate that social capital and transformational leadership significantly positively affect enterprises’ performance with a p-value < 0.05, and the ability to innovate is proven to be a mediator with a p-value < 0.05. This study is relevant to the government program related to community welfare and offers implications for rural enterprises to improve social capital, leadership capabilities, and innovation.

The subject of stimulating employees toward digital transformation has always been one of the most significant topics, attracting the interests of scientists and decision-makers. This study analyzes the impact of critical factors, including self-efficacy, attitude, leadership, and employee characteristics on employee readiness for digital transformation and job performance. The variables were selected based on the extended theory of planned behavior and personal resource adaption models. To achieve the research objective, partial least squares structural equation modeling was employed. Data were collected from a survey of 302 employees of SMEs in Vietnam. Research findings showed that employees attitude (β = 0.1148; p < 0.05), self-efficacy (β = 0.3737; p < 0.05), and characteristics (β = 0.3328; p < 0.05) affected their readiness for digital transformation. Employees self-efficacy and characteristics also demonstrated direct impacts on job performance. Meanwhile, leadership showed no direct impact (p = 0.6430) but an indirect impact on job performance through readiness (β = 0.1360, p < 0.05). Additionally, among the factors, employee readiness is the most substantial predictor of job performance (β = 0.5152). The findings can benefit Vietnamese SME managers and policymakers, as they can better understand employees and develop effective strategies and measures to promote employee readiness and job performance in a digital transformation context.

Acknowledgment
This article is a scientific product of the ministry-level project “Research on factors affecting digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises in Vietnam”, code B2022-BKA-22, funded by the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam.

Pay inequity seems to be a major concern at private universities in developing countries. Therefore, this study, drawing on equity and relative deprivation theories, aims to investigate the role of pay equity in shaping the organizational commitment of university faculty members in Bangladesh. It used the convenience sampling method with a structured questionnaire. Participants in the study were 254 full-time faculty members, including lecturers, assistant professors, associate professors, and professors from private universities in Bangladesh. A t-test comparing different categories of faculty members showed no noteworthy distinctions between their responses regarding pay equity and organizational commitment. Then, the study employed variance-based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze the data and validate the research model. According to the findings, internal pay equity positively and significantly affects affective (β = 0.327, p < 0.05) and normative commitment (β = 0.579, p < 0.05). Moreover, external pay equity is significantly associated with affective (β = 0.488, p < 0.05) and continuance commitment (β = 0.492, p < 0.05). However, the impact of internal pay equity on continuance commitment (β = 0.150, p = 0.165) was insignificant. Similarly, the relationship between external pay equity and normative commitment (β = 0.170, p = 0.263) was also insignificant. The findings indicate that higher education institutions can stimulate the organizational commitment of academics by promoting pay equity.

Most research on financial development and non-resource economic growth presents a wide range and, in some cases, even conflicting results. Evidence from emerging and resource-rich countries may enrich the scientific discourse with new empirical evidence. Therefore, the study aims to assess the mutual impact of financial development and non-resource economic growth in Azerbaijan. The growth rate of real non-oil gross domestic product (GDP), the share of loans in non-oil GDP, and the share of the broad money in GDP were taken as variables for the model. Monthly variable data from 2005–2022 were processed using the unrestricted vector autoregression model. The study’s results did not provide evidence for long-run causality between the finance sector and non-oil growth. But there are short-run and unidirectional causal relationships – from loans to non-oil growth and from broad money to loans. The results also showed that the increase in loans does not support broad money growth. Policymakers are encouraged to increase incentives for lending to the non-oil sector. Supporting money supply growth through increased deposits and non-cash money could also positively impact non-oil growth through loan channels. The development of the securities market could also open up additional financing opportunities for entrepreneurs in the non-oil sector.

Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments are expressed to all the scientists whose works have become a theoretical and methodological foundation for the study. It is also necessary to note the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan, which provides open access to the use of an extensive information base.

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) have a strategic position as architects of public services, balancing large private powers, helping to foster small businesses or cooperatives, and a considerable basis of state revenue in numerous forms of taxes and dividends. For Indonesia to compete in the global market, its economic actors (private sector, SOEs, and cooperatives) must amplify their performance. This paper aims to explore the factors affecting performance excellence in Indonesian SOEs, namely business environment and innovation capability through business strategy. Data were obtained from questionnaires distributed to 100 directors/managers representing SOEs in 12 clusters. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) procedures were operated to evaluate the path coefficients and identify the pivotal factors of each construct using SmartPLS. The results exhibited that the business environment (β = 0.357, p < 0.05) and innovation capability (β = 0.518, p < 0.05) positively and significantly affected Indonesian SOEs’ business strategy. Meanwhile, business environment (β = 0.263, p < 0.05), innovation capability (β = 0.273, p < 0.05), and business strategy (β = 0.459, p < 0.05) positively and significantly affected SOEs performance excellence. Moreover, business strategies can partially mediate the effect of the business environment (β = 0.164, p < 0.05) and innovation capability (β = 0.238, p < 0.05) on performance excellence. An important implication of this study is that to maintain and improve performance excellence, SOEs must first focus on the capability of innovation to initiate the implementation of business strategies by constantly addressing the business environment.

The role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the modern economy is crucial, and they have emerged as the most alluring and inventive system. To investigate and assess SMEs’ operations, internal auditing was formed as an independent assessment. Internal auditors’ planning and implementation of a quality program of internal audits can result in several advantages to SMEs. The current study investigates how internal auditors might help SMEs become more competitive. To fulfill the study’s requirements, 200 employees of Greek SMEs who were relevant to the internal audit function in their business environment were invited to answer a questionnaire. Internal auditors are viewed positively by most of the (100) employees who responded. Ranging from 34% to 53% in part B of the questionnaire (the role of internal auditors), they strongly agree with the positive role of internal auditors in Greek SMEs. Regarding the evaluation of internal auditors, most respondents gave a relatively negative opinion. From 31% to 34% respondents in part C of the questionnaire (evaluation of internal auditors) agree a little with the positive evaluation of internal auditors in Greek SMEs. Furthermore, the results showed that internal auditors must be professionals, comprehend the audited activities in-depth, offer ways to remedy problematic activities, and voice their thoughts objectively to succeed in the competitiveness of Greek SMEs.

Green economic growth ensures the country’s wealth and population well-being with decreasing ecological damages. This strategy requires effective government policy to push economic agents to environmentally friendly behavior and significant financial resources to invest in technological modernization. The study aims to assess whether promotion of green economic growth in post-Soviet countries depends on direct and portfolio investment. The paper develops the index of green economic growth performance considering traditional economic growth, social, and environmental indicators. To determine the contribution of direct and portfolio investments in the promotion of green economic growth performance, regression equations (for the panel of countries as a whole and each country in particular) are developed. All models are supplemented with traditional economic growth control variables (GDP growth, inflation, gross fixed capital formation, trade). The information base is public data from the World Bank for the sample of 13 post-Soviet countries for 2000–2021. It was revealed that Estonia and Latvia have the highest level of green economic growth performance, while Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan have the lowest. The most effective country (Latvia) uses its green economic growth potential only for 62.33%. Modeling results do not confirm the significance of foreign and portfolio investment contributions in promoting green economic growth in most post-Soviet countries (portfolio investments boost green economic growth in Estonia and Moldova, while foreign direct investments contribute to green economic growth in Ukraine). These results might be explained by a lack of institutional capacity and government efficiency to ensure effective absorption of investments.

The current business performance of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) must be able to innovate in business strategies in a competitive era. MSMEs are at the forefront of contributing to Indonesia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and have a considerable role in the Indonesian economy. The study aimed to assess factors contributing to the business performance of MSMEs in Sidoarjo Regency, Indonesia. The total population was 277 MSME owners; using the purposive sampling technique with the Slovin formula, 144 respondents were obtained with an error rate of 5%. Data analysis used SEM-PLS with SmartPLS-3 software. The findings show that entrepreneurial leadership directly affects business performance and innovative work behavior, and innovative work behavior affects business performance. Then, entrepreneurial leadership influences business performance through innovative work behavior. Interestingly, there is no moderating effect of self-efficacy on the effect of entrepreneurial leadership on business performance. MSMEs need to have innovative work behavior to improve their business performance by applying entrepreneurial leadership to increase innovation in business strategies to compete and survive in a competitive era.

Innovative projects can be very costly, and making mistakes in their implementation can be expensive for organizations and investors. Therefore, appropriate procedures are needed to minimize the likelihood of such errors, facilitate strategic decision-making, and optimize investments. This paper presents a methodology for assessing the viability and potential of cryptocurrency and blockchain projects based on evaluating individual project components and synthesizing these assessments.
The proposed approach suggests considering a project as a collection of individual components with clear metrics that can be assessed; various assessments of these metrics are introduced. As a result, a project manager or investor assigns ratings to its metrics when analyzing several projects and then calculates a final assessment for each project. A project manager can determine the most promising project by comparing the reviews of several projects.
This methodology stands out for its simplicity and clarity, and a significant advantage is its reliance on only publicly available data. This approach can be applied as the first step in making investment decisions regarding a specific project when working with investment funds or launchpads, for example.

Acknowledgment
The paper is prepared within the scientific research project “Fundamentals of the phase transition to the additive economy: From disruptive technologies to institutional socialization of decisions” (№ 0121U109557), funded by the general fund of the state budget of Ukraine.

Servant leadership positively influences the performance of organizations since it focuses on developing the most critical capital of organizations – human beings. The study aims to analyze the influence of servant leadership on organizational performance mediated by organizational culture focusing on administrative staff in Peru. It uses a quantitative approach and non-experimental design. The data were obtained transversally from 465 union members-administrative staff through a virtual survey with a 20-item Likert-type questionnaire, verifying the data for compliance with the underlying assumptions. For data processing, the SPSS AMOS program was chosen, subjecting the data to confirmatory factor analysis and using the structural equation model to test the proposed hypotheses. The results show that, for administrative staff, organizational culture partially mediates the influence of servant leadership on organizational performance at 0.127. While servant leadership positively influences organizational performance (β = 0.341, p < 0.01), it also positively influences organizational culture (β = 0.492, p < 0.01). Furthermore, organizational culture positively influences organizational performance (β= 0.262, p < 0.01). The study confirms the importance of servant leadership in the performance of organizations. Also, it provides evidence to affirm that organizational culture is fundamental in explaining this influence, thus filling the research gap.

This study aims to analyze the performance of Islamic philanthropic institution during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2021) by using a balanced scorecard approach. The balanced scorecard assesses a company or institution based on four perspectives: finance, customer, internal business, and growth and learning. For internal business and growth and learning performance perspectives, data were taken from interviews, and the annual report of the institution was taken for a finance perspective. For customer perspectives, the study used a questionnaire distributed to 100 respondents who are regular donors to philanthropic institution. They play an essential role because regardless of the economic conditions that occur, they are still obliged to donate as a form of the obligation of a rich Muslim to pay zakat. The results showed that the customer perspective had the highest value in its performance results compared to the other three perspectives. Islamic philanthropic institution has a high orientation to customers where customer satisfaction is prioritized in improving the performance of zakat institutions, especially during the pandemic. This is in line with the performance of Islamic philanthropic institution, which continues to increase performance during the pandemic. Despite experiencing a decline in zakat funds in the second wave of COVID-19, Islamic philanthropic institution increased infaq and sadaqah funds during the same period.

Acknowledgment
The authors thank the Research and Innovation Institute (LRI), Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, for the enormous financial support in writing this research through the HIT funding scheme with number 01/A.6-II/FAI/1/2022.

There is no doubt that women play a vital role in all aspects of economic activities around the globe. However, despite the great efforts that governments have made over the past three decades to increase women’s integration into the labor market, their participation is still relatively low compared to men. On the other hand, economic literature argues that the government can use fiscal policy tools such as tax revenue and spending to decrease gender inequality in the labor market. The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of government spending and tax revenue shocks on the female labor force participation rate (the share of women in the total labor force) in Egypt. Annual time-series data were collected from the Central Bank of Egypt and the World Bank from 1990 to 2021, where the vector autoregressive (VAR) model and impulse response functions have been used. The results suggest that government spending and tax revenue shocks increase gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate, female labor force participation, and inflation. Results validated the research hypotheses and showed that a one standard deviation shock to either government spending or tax revenue has a positive impact on female labor force participation. Therefore, the study recommends that using an expansionary fiscal policy may increase the accessibility of Egyptian women to the labor market.

This study aims to investigate the mediating role of strategic engagement in elucidating the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and the establishment of agile work teams in the Iraqi investment sector. To do so, a custom-designed questionnaire was administered using a five-point Likert scale to collect responses from employees at local companies operating in the investment sector within the Iraqi Middle Euphrates region, resulting in 329 middle managers. Data analysis was conducted utilizing SPSS version 25 and AMOS. The study reveals a direct and substantial impact of entrepreneurial leadership on both strategic engagement and agile work teams, with coefficients of 0.66 and 0.44, respectively. Additionally, a direct and significant influence of strategic engagement on forming agile work teams is observed, with a coefficient of 0.47. Furthermore, the paper highlights an indirect effect of entrepreneurial leadership on establishing agile work teams within these companies, mediated through strategic engagement, with a coefficient of 0.096. Therefore, the adoption of the entrepreneurial leadership paradigm by Iraqi investment companies has the potential to enhance the creation of agile work teams by promoting strategic engagement among the managerial ranks of these organizations. These findings contribute to the relevant literature and offer actionable insights that can facilitate improving leadership practices, strategic engagement initiatives, responsiveness to change, competitive advantage, and knowledge sharing.

The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of servant leadership on employee well-being in the Jordanian hospitality sector. Furthermore, it attempted to explore the potential mediation effects of job burnout, role overload, and anxiety on this relationship. The data in this study were obtained from a sample of 341 individuals who were employed in five-star hotels located in Amman using a simple random sample. For analysis, the study employed the SEM-AMOS software. The results indicated a noteworthy and favorable influence of servant leadership on the well-being of employees (p = 0.001), emphasizing its crucial meaning in creating a nurturing work atmosphere that promotes enhanced well-being among employees. Additionally, the study has identified anxiety and job burnout as a mediator (p = 0.001), indicating that servant leadership has an impact on well-being by reducing levels of anxiety and job burnout. Nevertheless, the hypothesized mediating effect of role overload was not supported (p = 0.070) in the specific setting under investigation. The study’s theoretical implications contribute to the broader comprehension of the complex connections between servant leadership, employee well-being, and mediating variables. Furthermore, it provides empirical insights within the specific context of the Jordanian hospitality business.

Stable economic progress and upward dynamics of economic growth in the regions depend on their level of security and ability to withstand adverse macroeconomic and other shocks, as well as the state of affairs in which risks cannot be transformed into threats and dangers. The study aims to assess the causal nexus and the level of sensitivity of regional economic growth components to changes in financial resilience determinants. The research methods include systemic and structural analyses (building an information and analytical model for studying financial resilience), Granger test (identifying causal relationships between the variables under study), risk theory (studying the nature of fluctuations), and spatial and temporal approach. Data from the regions (oblasts) of Ukraine between 2015 and 2021 form the informational and analytical basis of the study. The paper reveals that the targeted use of transfers for socio-economic progress, increasing investment capacity, and bolstering financial and budgetary autonomy through increasing local budget revenues are the dominant financial determinants of regional economic growth. The results show that the most dominant causal nexus exists between (1) budgetary efficiency, interest rates on consumer/mortgage loans, and SME development, (2) the volume of loans/deposits and labor market efficiency and SME development, and (3) innovation development and foreign economic cooperation. Intensification of investment activity is crucial for ensuring real changes in the economic structure of all regions, particularly outsiders, accelerating transformation processes, mitigating regional economic divergence, and increasing competitiveness.

Acknowledgments
The study was conducted within the framework of the “Financial Determinants of Ensuring Economic Growth of Regions and Territorial Communities based on Behavioral Economics” project (№ 2020.02/0215) funded by the National Research Foundation of Ukraine (Competition “Support for Research of Leading and Young Scientists”).

A practical government policy on apprenticeship is a requirement to continuously advance and encourage the company toward top performance and adaptability for a long-term sustainability. In Nigeria, which has a significant young unemployment problem, apprenticeship has emerged as a key to reducing youth unemployment. Thus, sustainability of family businesses is a source of employment, and continuing apprenticeship practices have also raised the likelihood that an individual will obtain employment in the southern regions of Nigeria. This study aimed to examine how job creation, vocational and technical training, and apprentice competences aid in sustaining family business growth in southern Nigeria. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey and stratified sampling technique; a sample included 329 apprentices in 48 SMEs in southern regions of Nigeria. Using a five-point Likert scale questionnaire, data were analyzed using a normality test, linearity test, and multicollinearity test to ascertain the adequacy of the data. Correlation analysis was used to test the hypotheses. Findings revealed that job creation is related to sustainable family business growth; however, the strength of the correlation, though weak (30.0%), was statistically significant; a significant degree of association also existed between apprentice vocational training and sustainable family business growth; lastly, apprentice competences relate significantly to sustainable family business growth (72.1%, p < 0.05). The study concluded that continuous apprenticeship practices influence the objective of business growth as a pivot for socioeconomic development and a long-term sustainability of family businesses.

Acknowledgment
The authors would like to sincerely appreciate the Editor-in-Chief and Reviewer(s) for their helpful comments that, in our view, have helped significantly to improve the quality of the manuscript.

Social media provide a variety of possibilities for tourist destination selection and bring new opportunities and challenges to the development of Thailand’s tourism industry. This study aims to examine Thailand’s tourism development through the lens of social media users via content analysis and find ways to improve Thailand’s tourism marketing strategies within social media. A dataset consisting of 10,008 tweets was utilized. Grounded theory is conducted to finish the open coding, axis coding, and selective coding process within NVivo 12.0, resulting in nine dimensions: the development of cities, elephant tourism development, Thailand perspective, the development of the tourism industry, tourism story, the development of tourist, tourism for Asian development, travel development perspective and cannabis. Subsequently, word frequency, sentiment, and cluster analyses were performed on those topics. The findings highlighted the critical elements of Thailand’s tourism development in social media, including cities, tourists, industries, stories, animals, and cannabis. In addition, the study identified popular tourist attractions and destinations within Thailand’s tourism development, as well as the positive impact of tourism on the economy, market, and urban development. Concurrently, Twitter users expressed concerns regarding sex tourism, cannabis, medical tourism, ecology, agriculture, and unrest in Thailand.

City competitiveness is a complex product of local and international conditions, local characteristics, social and economic superstructure, and the actions of individual companies. Although many scientific studies have examined the country’s and urban competitiveness, the competitiveness of port cities still needs to be assessed comprehensively, taking into account their crucial economic role. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the competitiveness and economic security of the Baltic port cities (Klaipėda, Riga, and Tallinn). Statistical processing and multi-criteria evaluation methods (SAW, COPRAS, and TOPSIS) were chosen to achieve this goal. The comparative analysis showed that the population change in port cities is not significant for the final result of the competitiveness assessment, and the unemployment rate in port cities is lower than in the country. The assessment of the competitiveness of port cities from the point of view of economic security shows (after checking such indicators as unemployment rate, company income, and infrastructure) that Tallinn is the most competitive port city according to the three multi-criteria evaluation methods, while Klaipėda is the least competitive. The assessment was carried out in three stages to monitor changes in the situation of port cities, compared to changes in a certain indicator and the costs of timely solutions or the improvement of the city’s position in relation to other cities.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors, both internal and external, that impact the adoption of digital governance in public administration. The quantitative data were collected through online questionnaires from 556 public servants, all of whom were enrolled in a Master of Public Administration program, representing a variety of public organizations, in a non-random way. The study draws from a comprehensive literature review and leverages structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis to derive empirical insights. The empirical analysis revealed positive relationships between digital governance, service quality, safety, trust, and transparency within public services. Contrary to previous results, internal factors such as leadership, organizational culture, and skillsets do not exhibit significant impacts. Overall, the study supports the idea that improving the quality of digital services and embracing innovative technologies are key drivers of digital governance in public administration, leading to increased transparency and public trust. These findings can guide policymakers and administrators in implementing effective digital governance strategies tailored to the specific context of each public organization.

The study aims to establish the moderation of transformational leadership in the relationship between technostress and academic performance of university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study was of a quantitative nature with the support of the deductive method and of an explanatory correlational type. Technostress was measured with an instrument adapted from the RED-Technostress scale; transformational leadership was measured with an instrument adapted from the short version of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 5X model; and academic performance was measured with a scale developed by the authors. A non-probabilistic convenience sampling was used, and the constructs were evaluated using SEM and SPSS AMOS software. In total, 245 questionnaires were administered. The results show a negative and significant relationship between transformational leadership and technostress (–0.338; p < 0.00), a positive and significant relationship between transformational leadership and academic performance (0.472; p < 0.00), a negative and significant direct relationship between technostress and academic performance (–0.553; p < 0.00), and moderation of transformational leadership of the relationship between technostress and academic performance (–0.159; p < 0.00). Thus, teacher leadership moderates the relationship between technostress and students’ academic performance, i.e., a high level of transformational leadership practices of teachers allows a lower impact of technostress and its manifestations on the students’ academic performance. Likewise, technostress manifested by students was relatively low, lower than the levels expected and evidenced in other studies carried out in the business environment, possibly explained by their age and their being in a context of continuous learning.

Acknowledgment
The authors thank the Universidad Surcolombiana for their support in the development of this study.

One of the tools of economic policy of any country is efficient public debt management, which influences and determines the dynamics of key macroeconomic indicators. The study aims to assess how public debt management affects Ukraine’s macroeconomic development. The analyzed period includes data of 2015–2021. Econometric modeling is used to establish the existence of causal relationships between the dynamics of public debt and changes in key macroeconomic indicators using the Granger causality test and VAR (Vector Autoregression) model. The obtained results demonstrate that during the study period, the strongest links existed between the public debt and GDP, debt servicing and Ukraine’s total state budget expenditures, public debt and consumer price index, real effective exchange rate index of the hryvnia to the US dollar, and political stability index. At the same time, the calculations proved that public debt does not have a significant impact on foreign direct investment and the level of imports of goods and services. The proposed model allows for forecasts for future periods and can be used in developing public debt management policy.

The development of the coffee business as a small and medium enterprise (SME) shows positive things with the increasing number of coffee, which means an abundance of existing coffee grounds. There is a lack of research on entrepreneur perspectives on coffee waste management. This study aims to analyze the perspective of coffee shop entrepreneurs in managing coffee waste and converting waste into alternative energy for sustainable and environmentally friendly prospects. Respondents in this study were 201 coffee shop owners in Bekasi, Indonesia, who received questionnaires using the snowball sampling technique; for data analysis, the paper used PLS-SEM. This study found that the entrepreneur perspective significantly affects coffee waste management, encouraging the sustainability of coffee shops. The results of the R-Square analysis show that coffee shop owner awareness is strongly influenced by coffee waste management knowledge (93.6%); the attitude of coffee shop owners is influenced by coffee waste management knowledge and coffee shop owner awareness (92.5%); and the coffee waste management behavior is influenced by coffee shop owner awareness and attitude of coffee shop owners (97.8%). In addition, entrepreneurs’ excellent attitudes and awareness toward the potential of coffee grounds encourage them to carry out better waste management through sorting procedures to convert coffee grounds into alternative energy.

Acknowledgment
This study is funded by the Directorate of Research and Development, Universitas Indonesia, under Hibah PUTI 2022 (Grant No. NKB-1364/UN2.RST/HKP.05.00/2022).

The bioeconomy, grounded in the shift from fossils to bio-based resources, plays an important role in the Net Zero 2050 scenario. However, even if rooted in circular thinking, bioeconomy business models are not free from environmental, social, and economic concerns. This paper deals with the causes of the unsustainability of business models in the biofuels sector, embracing an unconventional approach that focuses on the uncaptured value. The value uncaptured is the negative aspect of value, and it consists of creating too much or not enough value during the product lifecycle. Value uncaptured can threaten the sustainability of circular business models, which is why it constitutes the ‘dark side’ of circular strategies. Starting from a gap in the existing literature and supported by theoretical background, this study aims to suggest a theoretical framework to identify the causes of the negative value in the biofuel sector. The paper uses a qualitative tool, namely a case study analysis. The findings reveal that circular business models can suffer from value uncaptured, which can take the form of value absence, value destroyed, value surplus, and value missed. Identifying these forms of value can transform them into opportunities for value creation. These results enrich the research on the circular economy with a new and unconventional approach. The elaborated theoretical framework can become a qualitative tool to identify what causes companies’ circular business models to underperform.

Currently, many universities are developing virtual education as an option for the training of future professionals. The objective of this study is to analyze aspects of the academic management of university virtual education from the perspective of students, teachers, and administrators. A mixed approach and non-experimental design were applied. Semi-structured interviews and surveys were used. The participants were 8 managers, 340 students, and 75 teachers from Peru, Colombia, Mexico, and Spain, from universities where virtual education is offered. The results show that 51% of teachers agree with the management, 50% accept the adequate use of technological tools, and only 20% say that virtual classes are effective. Concerning students, 45% agree with the management, but only 15% feel that they are attended to when problems arise in the virtual modality. The managers determine relevant aspects such as the importance of teacher training, having technological tools to ensure learning, and providing a comprehensive academic service, as is provided in the in-person modality. It is concluded that academic management in the virtual modality should prioritize the improvement of satisfaction levels of both students and teachers through adaptation processes, training, performance evaluation, attention, and problem-solving, as well as the use of virtual platforms that allow the development of competencies of the graduate profile and contribute to the comprehensive training of future professionals.

This study aims to investigate the impact of leadership support on the interplay between role stressors and turnover intentions among IT workers in Bengaluru. The study focuses on five constructs: role stressors, job performance, job satisfaction, supervisor support, and turnover intention. Using a questionnaire, data were collected from 196 IT employees, with 187 valid responses for analysis. Structural equation modeling (SEM) through Smart PLS software assessed the relationships between the constructs. The findings reveal that role stressors significantly contribute to IT workers’ intention to leave their organizations. Moreover, the connections between role stressors and both job performance and job satisfaction are influenced by the level of supervisor support. Supervisor support emerges as a crucial moderator in the relationship between role stressors and job satisfaction, highlighting its role in mitigating the negative effects of stress on employees. However, no mediating effect was observed between role stressors and job satisfaction when supervisor assistance was present. Furthermore, the study identifies a negative impact of role stressors on job satisfaction and, subsequently, a negative influence of job satisfaction on turnover intentions. These findings underscore the importance of supportive leadership in enhancing employee performance and job satisfaction, reducing the likelihood of turnover. This paper emphasizes the significance of leadership support as a key factor in shaping the dynamics between role stressors and turnover intentions among IT workers. The results suggest that fostering a supportive supervisory environment can positively influence employee well-being and retention in the IT industry.