Issue #1 (Volume 24 2026)

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
This study aims to examine the factors influencing early warning behavior in trade defense through the mediating role of the decision to adopt artificial intelligence (AI). Data were collected in the first quarter of 2025 from a survey of 328 managers working in the customs sector in Vietnam. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), the findings reveal that the decision to adopt AI is directly influenced by six factors: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived risk, organizational commitment to innovation, technological readiness, and external pressure. These six factors also exert indirect effects on early warning behavior through the mediating role of AI adoption decisions. In contrast, organizational support does not generate a statistically significant moderating effect on the relationship between AI adoption and early warning behavior. The results provide further evidence of the critical role of AI adoption in enhancing effectiveness and efficiency within customs authorities, particularly in strengthening behaviors that safeguard the interests of exporting firms and protect national interests. These findings offer practical implications for emerging economies with conditions similar to Vietnam, where leveraging AI can serve as a strategic tool to improve trade defense mechanisms.

Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank the Editor-in-Chief and a reviewer for their helpful comments that in our view have helped to improve the quality of the manuscript significantly. Besides, this study is the result of collaboration between researchers from the University of Law, Hue University, and School of Business and Economics, Duy Tan University. The authors would like to thank both institutions for their support and facilitation in the publication of this research.

Type of the article: Review Article

Abstract
As disruptions intensify in frequency and complexity, municipalities face growing pressure from society to strengthen their resilience to navigate these disruptions, maintain critical functions under unstable conditions, recover effectively, adapt, and transform. Hence, this study examines how resilience strategies and digital governance maturity interact to shape municipalities’ capacity to cope with disruptions, and how the domains of strategy, people, and processes enable this relationship. Using a systematic literature review, we found that resilience is a multifaceted phenomenon, in which bounce-back, bounce-forward, and bounce-beyond strategies are complementary rather than sequential, requiring municipalities to balance continuity with adaptation and transformation. The synthesis also allowed us to conclude that the feasibility of these strategies varies with digital governance maturity: digital consistency tends to support robust continuity and reliable service delivery, digital adaptation enables learning and flexible reconfiguration, and digital transformation underpins structural change and renewal. Finally, we revealed that these strategy-maturity linkages are enabled by the extent to which strategy, people, and processes are aligned, including leadership and governance arrangements, employee capabilities, and redesigned procedures and routines.
Building on these findings, we propose an integrative synthesis of the literature and derive concluding propositions linking municipal resilience strategies, i.e., bounce back, bounce forward, bounce beyond, with digital governance maturity levels, i.e., digital consistency, digital adaptation, digital transformation, through the alignment of strategy, people, and processes as the enabling mechanism shaping this relationship.

Acknowledgment
This research has received funding from the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT), agreement No. S-VIS-23-10.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
The university is the primary facilitator of students’ entrepreneurial spirit, and digitalization is the best way to launch new businesses during university years. This study investigated the relationship between entrepreneurship education and digital entrepreneurial intention mediated by two variables, entrepreneurial motivation and entrepreneurial mindset. Data were collected from students in entrepreneurship workshops at Brawijaya University, followed by students from several public and private universities across Indonesia, with 461 respondents selected using quota sampling. Students come from exact (e.g., Physics, Chemistry, or Mathematics) and non-exact (e.g., Management, Psychology, or Law) majors, with the majority in the third year of study. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling partial least squares (SEM-PLS). The results indicated that entrepreneurship education has a positive and significant effect on digital entrepreneurial intention (path coefficient = 0.081, p = 0.003). Entrepreneurial mindset does not significantly affect digital entrepreneurial intention (path coefficient = 0.043, p = 0.256). Entrepreneurship education significantly affects entrepreneurial motivation and entrepreneurial mindset (path coefficient = 0.423, p < 0.001). In addition, this study confirms the mediating role of entrepreneurial mindset on the relationship between entrepreneurship education and digital entrepreneurial intention (path coefficient = 0.284, p < 0.001). Surprisingly, entrepreneurship motivation failed to mediate the relationship between entrepreneurship education and digital entrepreneurial intention (path coefficient = 0.014, p = 0.283). Furthermore, entrepreneurship education shows no significant effect on digital entrepreneurship intention among female students and those from non-exact fields, indicating substantial individual differences in responses to such education.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
Income inequality remains a key socio-economic challenge in Kazakhstan, where persistent disparities reflect institutional weaknesses, structural imbalances, and limited effectiveness of redistribution mechanisms. This study aims to assess the influence of institutional quality, economic structure, and social policy on income inequality in Kazakhstan. The analysis is based on annual national and international statistical data for 2001–2023, covering indicators of governance quality, investment activity, labor market dynamics, and social protection. Methodologically, the study uses Spearman’s rank correlation analysis to identify statistically significant associations between the Gini coefficient and selected explanatory variables, without assuming linear relationships. The robustness of results is verified through significance testing at multiple confidence levels. The findings indicate that stricter rule of law and lower corruption are associated with reduced inequality (Spearman’s ρ ≈ –0.44 to –0.50, p < 0.05), while a higher share of state-owned enterprises correlates with greater disparities (ρ ≈ +0.47, p < 0.05). Investment per capita and household expenditures exert a moderate equalizing effect (each ρ ≈ –0.47, p < 0.05), whereas growth in real incomes and an expanding manufacturing sector are linked to wider gaps. Manufacturing share shows a strong positive association with inequality (ρ ≈ +0.80, p < 0.001), and overall income growth correlates positively as well (ρ ≈ +0.72, p < 0.001). Social transfers and pensions operate primarily as reactive measures, smoothing short-term fluctuations rather than achieving sustained redistribution. The findings provide guidance for public policy aimed at reducing income inequality and indicate that the strongest equalizing effects are associated with improvements in the rule of law, reductions in corruption, and higher investment activity, while growth in real household incomes and existing social transfers are largely reactive and do not ensure sustained redistribution.

Acknowledgment
This paper was prepared within the framework of the scientific and technical program IRN BR28713593 “Sustainable development of Kazakhstan’s economy in the context of new challenges: foresight, strategies and scenarios of modernization, institutions.”

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
The emphasis on responsible business practices has increased interest in how socially responsible human resource management (SRHRM) shapes employee attitudes and behaviors. However, empirical evidence on how SRHRM contributes to employee job performance in emerging economies remains limited. This study examines the influence of SRHRM on job performance through employee commitment and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). The analysis was conducted among full-time employees working in production, technical, and administrative positions in foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises located in Vietnam’s Southern Key Economic Region. To ensure respondents had sufficient exposure to organizational HR practices, only employees with a minimum tenure of six months were included in the sample, consistent with recommendations that employees require adequate organizational experience to reliably evaluate HRM practices.
A quantitative survey was administered from March to May 2025 using a structured questionnaire, yielding 868 valid responses collected through a stratified–convenience sampling approach. Structural equation modeling was applied to test the proposed relationships. The results show that SRHRM significantly enhances employee commitment (β = 0.579, p < 0.001) and OCB (β = 0.615, p < 0.001). Both mediators positively affect job performance, with employee commitment (β = 0.322) and OCB (β = 0.440) demonstrating meaningful contributions. Significant indirect effects were also observed via commitment (β = 0.187) and OCB (β = 0.271). The model explains 39.7% of the variance in job performance. These findings confirm the role of SRHRM in fostering positive employee attitudes and behaviors, thereby improving job performance in FDI enterprises operating in emerging markets.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
This study examines whether job satisfaction predicts nurses’ intention to stay with their employer and whether work engagement (conceptualized as vigor, dedication, and absorption) mediates this relationship. We conducted a two-phase repeated cross-sectional survey of hospital nurses in Slovakia to replicate and validate findings across time periods; data were collected in May–November 2022 (n = 742) and September–October 2024 (n = 500). The samples were comparable in demographic characteristics, and the results were consistent across both phases. Descriptive statistics and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) were employed. Results showed that job satisfaction significantly predicted nurses’ intention to stay (β = 0.281, p < 0.001). Work engagement also positively predicted intention to stay and acted as a partial mediator between job satisfaction and intention to stay (indirect effect β = 0.142, p < 0.001). Among satisfaction facets, remuneration and benefits (standardized loading = 0.829) were the strongest predictors of retention, followed by managerial support (0.791), workload (0.787), and career advancement opportunities (0.783). Engagement was thus confirmed as a statistically significant mediator between job satisfaction and intention to stay. These findings quantify the pathway from satisfaction to intention to stay via engagement and prove the stability of these relationships over time, including during the period of changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Practically, targeted HR policies that strengthen satisfaction and engagement, especially through competitive pay and benefits, supportive supervision, effective communication, and clear developmental and career pathways, are essential to stabilize the nursing workforce and mitigate turnover.

Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the ESG project No. D12_2024, “The impact of human resource practices on the sustainability of the nursing workforce (nurses) in hospitals,” and was also conducted as part of the completed APVV project No. 19-0579, “Personnel management processes set up in hospitals and their impact on the migration of physicians and nurses to work abroad.”