Faculty Research and Publications: Recent submissions
Now showing items 1-20 of 22
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Digitalized Curriculums in Architecture: Impact on Student Satisfaction and EngagementAmidst the swift technological advancements post-COVID-19, architecture has embraced digital tools for online teaching, integrating Industry 4.0 elements to enhance education. This study assesses the impact of digitalized architectural curricula on student satisfaction and engagement. By comparing the perspectives of educators and students, it explores factors influencing satisfaction and engagement in these new curricula. The research evaluates alternative teaching methods, assessments, and their effectiveness in optimal education delivery. Additionally, it examines the perceptions of educators and students regarding digitalized curriculum effects on satisfaction and engagement. Employing a constructivist approach, the study uses the Technology Acceptance Model to measure the efficacy of digital tools in higher education. Survey questions assess students' perceptions of integrating digital tools' ease of use and usefulness. Analyzing these perceptions offers insights into factors influencing students' technology acceptance, impacting satisfaction and engagement. The Flow Theory ensures the alignment of digital tasks with students' skill levels. Findings deepen understanding of the intricate relationship between satisfaction, engagement, and digitalized curricula in architectural education. The study proposes practical strategies, such as involving students in selecting digital tools, providing comprehensive technology education and support, and fostering a technology-embracing learning environment.
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Smart Cities: Lock-in, Path-dependence and Non-linearity of Digitalization and SmartificationThis book seeks to identify and to examine factors and mechanisms underlying the growth and development of smart cities. It is commonplace to discuss smart cities through the lens of advances in ICT. The resulting overemphasis on what is technologically possible downplays what is politically, socially and economically feasible. This book, by analysing the smart city through a variety of perspectives, offers a more comprehensive insight into and understanding of the complex and the open-ended nature of the growth and development of a smart city. A solid conceptual framework is developed and employed throughout the chapters, and a selection of case studies from Europe, Asia, and the Arab Peninsula grants the readers a hands-on perspective of the matters discussed. The chapters included in this book address a set of questions, including: How do the twin-processes of digitalization and smartification unfold in the context of the smart city agenda? How do these processes relate to the concepts of smart city 1.0, 2.0., 3.0. and 4.0? In which ways have the spatial aspects of city functioning been influenced by the intrusion of ICT? In which ways do the same processes contribute to the attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? What are the implications of smartification and the emergence of smart organizations (public, private, and voluntary) for the spatial development of smart cities? Do ICT and its application in the city space boost the processes of revitalization and how does ICT influence the process of gentrification? To what extent and how does the intrusion of ICT-enhanced tools and applications in the city space impact on a city’s relationship with its broader territorially defined context? Are the administrative borders and divisions inherent in the fabric of a city becoming less/more porous? How should urban sprawl be conceived in the context of the smart city debate?
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Digital divide, gender gap, and entrepreneurial orientation: how to foster technology adoption among Pakistani higher education students?Advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) bear the promise of multiple benefits, including individual and entrepreneurial empowerment. The prospect of harnessing ICT as a means of creating growth and development opportunities is particularly appealing in developing countries. Still, several factors, including digital illiteracy and gender inequality, hamper the possibility of effective and universal utilization of these opportunities, in extreme cases leading to digital divide, gender-based exclusion, poverty, and precarity. Using this observation as a springboard, the objective of this paper is to conceptualize and quantify the digital divide-gender-entrepreneurial orientation nexus as it emerges in the perception of Pakistan higher education students. Using a quantitative approach, this study identifies the impact of digital skills (and thus the knowledge inequalities that can determine the potential digital gap) on entrepreneurship-related technology adoption (as measured through Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, UTAUT), whereby gender is treated as a moderator. The empirical findings, based on Structure Equation Modelling (SEM) and Multiple Group Analysis (MGA), show that digital skills and perceptions of technology capabilities have a substantial impact on the desire to use ICT in entrepreneurial activities. The influence of technology adoption intent on the development of entrepreneurial orientation is also confirmed. This paper adds to the broader debate on gender, digital divide and entrepreneurship. Importantly, by identifying some of the drivers behind students’ technology adoption in a developing nation such as Pakistan, filled with technological and economic unbalances, the conclusions of this study will have conceptual, managerial, and policymaking applications, notably in terms of technological access, digital literary, and gender-based exclusion.
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Supporting the Implementation of the SDGs Through a Blockchain-Based Platform: The Case of ItalyOne of the very successful collective efforts aimed at improving the lives of billions of people are the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and their predecessors, i.e., the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). The assessment of the implementation of the SDGs in Italy in 2019 demonstrates that, overall, Italian cities have achieved 53% of the targets. Nevertheless, a performance output gap exists between Italy’s North and South. Considering the—proven by research and practice—value of blockchain, the objective of this paper is to explore how blockchain may improve the implementation of the SDGs in Italy. To this end, a qualitative analysis supported by systematic literature review and thematic analysis have been adopted. Against this backdrop, a comprehensive and structured model outlining the key imperatives (governance, sustainability, and data sciences) pertaining to the SDGs has been built to offer a meta-framework for the performance output analysis. This model, integrating blockchain Ethereum, and Inter Planetary File System (IPFS), offers insights on the scope and scale of the SDGs implementation by local and regional stakeholders. In this way, it may serve as a tool for policymakers, at the regional and national levels, to support strategy and decision-making process geared toward the implementation of the SDGs in Italy.
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Characterization of the Citizen Profile in the Context of the Smart SocietyThe Smart Society is a model of social organization that, under a participatory approach, explores the opportunities generated by emerging technologies to establish a perspective of social progress that enables citizens to contribute in two main areas: (1) the possibility of participating in the process of development and implementation of public policies and services; (2) citizens are established as the main force to address the phenomena that affect society. The aim is to transfer the potential shown by citizens to influence the social sphere, and thereby improve the mechanisms to address the challenges that limit the process of social development. Promoting this perspective of thinking requires the transformation of traditional foundations, not only on the side of governments and political leaders, business, and other stakeholders, but also on the side of citizens themselves. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the new profile that the citizen must adopt in the context of the Smart Society.
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Research and Innovation Forum 2023. Navigating Shocks and Crises in Uncertain Times—Technology, Business, SocietyFeatures research presented and discussed during the Research & Innovation Forum Offers a unique insight into emerging topics, issues, and developments pertinent to the fields of technology Gives an essential venue where diverse stakeholders can engage in a meaningful dialogue
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Placing China’s Green Technology Innovation in a ContextConsidering that green technology innovation is trending worldwide, whereby China’s stance towards issues environmental is frequently contested, this paper offers an insight into the scale and scope of green technology innovation in China today. By conducting a quantitative analysis of data on key green-technology investment statistics collected from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and China’s National Statistical Bureau, the findings of this paper suggest that China’s green technology innovation activities have increased dramatically in terms of (i) green patent applications and grants, (ii) propensity to engage in international collaboration, (iii) diffusion of environment-related technologies, and (iv) increasing government spending on research and development (R&D), especially in terms of personnel/talent development. This notwithstanding, the data demonstrates that a gap exists between China and other countries in per capita comparisons of performance and progress attained. This suggests that a great potential exists for China to improve, whereby the prospect of improving China’s performance is a function of increased investment and strengthened international collaboration.
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Managing Smart Cities: Sustainability and Resilience Through Effective ManagementThis book adopts the managerial perspective to the study of smart cities. As such, this book is a necessary addition to the existing body of literature on smart cities. The chapters included in this book prove the case that transformation of cities to smart cities is a function of effective and efficient management practices implemented at diverse levels of smart cities. While advances in information and communication technology (ICT) are crucial, it is the ability to apply ICT consciously and efficiently that drives the transformation of cities to smart cities in a manner conducive to cities’ sustainability and resilience. The book covers three sets of interconnected topics: Management and decision-making for urban design and infrastructure development Management and decision-making in context of smart cities development Ways of promoting and ensuring participation, representation and co-creation in smart cities These three groups of topics offer a great opportunity to acquire a clear, direct, and practice-driven knowledge and understanding of how effective management allows ICT-enhanced tools and applications to change smart cities, possibly making them smarter.
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The Industry 5.0 (I50) paradigm, blockchain-based applications and the smart cityPurpose Against the background of the I50 paradigm, this paper queries in what ways blockchain and blockchain-based applications deployed in the smart city context facilitate the integration of the I50 paradigm in smart urban contexts. Design/methodology/approach A mixed methods approach is applied. First, by means of desk research and thematic literature review, a conceptual model integrating the I50 paradigm, smart city and blockchain-based solutions is built. Second, science mapping bibliometric analysis (SciMat) based on keywords’ co-occurrence is applied to a sample of 491 research articles to identify key domains of blockchain-based applications’ use in smart city. Third, a semi-systematic literature review complements insights gained through SciMat. Fourth, the findings are interpreted through the precepts of the conceptual model devised earlier. Findings The key blockchain-based applications in smart cities pertain to two domains, i.e. the foundational, service facilitation-oriented domain, including security (and safety), networks, computing, resource management and the service delivery-oriented domain, including mobility, energy and healthcare. Blockchain serves as the key building block for applications developed to deliver functions specific to each of the thus identified domains. A substantial layering of blockchain-based tools and applications is necessary to advance from the less to the more complex functional domains of the smart city. Originality/value At the conceptual level, the intricacies of the (making of the) I50 paradigm are discussed and a case for I50 – smart city – blockchain nexus is made. Easton’s input–output model as well as constructivism is referenced. At the empirical level, the key major domains of blockchain-based applications are discussed; those that bear the prospect of integrating the I50 paradigm in the smart city are highlighted. At the methodological level, a strategic move is made aimed at restoring the literature review’s role as subservient to the key line of exploration, to justify and ultimately support it, rather than to showcase the literature review as the ultimate purpose for itself.
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Explaining China's Pivots and Priorities Through the Aerospace Industry Development StrategyGiven the question of China's role in international politics today, including the notions of China's pivots and priorities, it is mandatory to identify and explore the mechanisms that recast China's role in the world today. A great number of domestic and external factors weigh in on the analysis. Recognizing the relevance of these, this paper focuses explicitly on the aerospace industry and its development strategy. Accordingly, it is argued that—while a seemingly domestic set of developments—the emerging regulatory framework pertaining to China’s aerospace industry, along with the institutional interdependencies that it triggers, serve as an important component of a broader long-term strategy and related pivots and priorities that China pursues. To support this point, following the introduction, and the methodology section, the domestic and external factors influencing the evolution of China's role in the world are conceptualized and mapped. Against this backdrop, the case of the aerospace industry is examined in section four. Discussion and conclusions follow.
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THE EFFECT OF BUY NOW, PAY LATER FINTECH ON TRADITIONAL FINANCIAL SERVICES AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOR IN SAUDI ARABIAThis research investigates the impacts of financial technology (Fintech) on traditionalfinancial services and the emergence of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) companies withinthe Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Fintech signifies a paradigmatic shift in the financial land-scape, utilizing technology to transform banking, payment systems, investment strate-gies, and lending practices. The BNPL model, recognized for its disruptive nature, ena-bles consumers to divide purchases into interest-free installments, thereby reshapingglobal consumer spending patterns. Thisstudy concentrates specifically on the SaudiArabian context, where Fintech adoption is experiencing rapid growth. It scrutinizes thefactors that influence BNPL adoption behavior among Saudi consumers, addressing aresearch void in localized studies. A sample of 100 consumer participants responded toan online survey. The statistical analysis underscores the strength, significance, andcorrelation between financial elements and the factors crucial to the decision-makingprocess for BNPL adoption. The descriptive analysis of Independent Variables (IVs) en-compassing Performance Expectancy (PE), Effort Expectancy (EE), Social Influence (SI),and Facilitating Conditions (FC) has provided significant insights into the perceptions ofconsumers regarding the adoption of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services. The analysishas revealed noteworthy patterns in the data. Performance Expectancy (PE) demon-strates moderate perceptions (Mean = 2.98), indicating a measured belief in the use-fulness of BNPL. Furthermore, Facilitating Conditions (FC) registered moderate scores(Mean = 3.04), underscoring the significance of favorable external factors. Collectively,these findings depict a moderate inclination and a generally positive outlook amongrespondents towards BNPL adoption,providing insights into the factors influencing theiradoption behaviors. The research findings contribute to academic comprehension, pro-vide insights for industry stakeholders, and inform the development of policies and reg-ulations within Saudi Arabia's dynamic Fintech ecosystem. Future studies may utilizelongitudinal studies, conduct cross-cultural comparisons, and explore technological in-tegration in exploring the BNPL consumer behavior studies
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Saudi Arabian Entrepreneurship Ecosystem and MicrofinanceMicrofinance is an important component of the entrepreneurship ecosystem (Iansiti & Levien, 2004). This research explores prominent microfinance models and introduces leading microfinance institutions, in a certain format, practicing these models across the globe. Using primarily qualitative methods of investigation, it then identifies the use of microfinance by different organizations in Saudi Arabia. The study contributes a model of microfinance in Saudi Arabia upon the contemporary conventions, procedures, and practices (Saudi Arabian microfinance model, SAMFIN). It would assist the microfinance landscape and practices of leading institutions. Eventually, the study would ascertain and pinpoint the challenges and opportunities for the Saudi Arabian entrepreneurship ecosystem stakeholders to introduce the changes and additions required to make the Saudi microfinance landscape more dynamic, and vibrant, and contribute to and satisfy the community needs. Also provided is a brief impact of the Saudi Vision 2030. This work would offer guidance and learning for practitioners, lenders, borrowers, and academics alike both in and outside the country. It can be concluded that the loan limit in Saudi Arabia is substantially high and equals $2666; the microfinance in Saudi Arabia is evolving and the differences identified and discussed above imply that the SAMFIN and global models are quite different in approach and modalities.
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Rethinking innovation through industry and society 5.0 paradigms: a multileveled approach for management and policy-makingIndustry 4.0 defines the application of digital technologies on business infrastructure and processes. With the increasing need to take into account the social and environmental impact of technologies, the concept of Society 5.0 has been proposed to restore the centrality of humans in the proper utilization of technology for the exploitation of innovation opportunities. Despite the identification of humans, resilience and sustainability as the key dimensions of Society 5.0, the definition of the key factors that can enable Innovation in the light of 5.0 principles has not been yet assessed. The findings allow the elaboration of a multileveled framework to redefine Innovation through the 5.0 paradigm by advancing the need to integrate ICT and technology (Industry 5.0) with the human-centric, social and knowledge-based dimensions (Society 5.0).
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Ethical Systems’ Dynamics in Family BusinessBuilding an ethical culture is challenging and a basic requirement of the companies to embed transparency in their systems, creating a positive image; serving the internal and external communities. Twelve family owned businesses participated in qualitative research. Interviews were conducted from employees of these businesses to explore the moral dynamics in their business. The paper significantly adds knowledge to the literature by exploring the ethics role in particular contexts. It explores how these companies build the ethical culture, identifying the ethical culture sustainability triggers, challenges and role of religion. Values, culture, community and social norms are identified as major ingredients of a sustainable principled culture development and implementation of ethical policies and procedures require institutional and structural mechanisms for effectiveness in family owned businesses. Numerous findings are in contrast to the literature, whereas, in other instances these are similar. Religion, society, family image, the entrepreneurs themselves and their family members play a vital role. Non-interference in private matters of the employees, whistle blowing, code of ethics, training and awareness creation and a number of other factors play a leading role in ethical culture development in family businesses.
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Research ArticleMicrofinance is an important component of the entrepreneurship ecosystem (Iansiti & Levien, 2004). This research explores prominent microfinance models and introduces leading microfinance institutions, in a certain format, practicing these models across the globe. Using primarily qualitative methods of investigation, it then identifies the use of microfinance by different organizations in Saudi Arabia. The study contributes a model of microfinance in Saudi Arabia upon the contemporary conventions, procedures, and practices (Saudi Arabian microfinance model, SAMFIN). It would assist the microfinance landscape and practices of leading institutions. Eventually, the study would ascertain and pinpoint the challenges and opportunities for the Saudi Arabian entrepreneurship ecosystem stakeholders to introduce the changes and additions required to make the Saudi microfinance landscape more dynamic, and vibrant, and contribute to and satisfy the community needs. Also provided is a brief impact of the Saudi Vision 2030. This work would offer guidance and learning for practitioners, lenders, borrowers, and academics alike both in and outside the country. It can be concluded that the loan limit in Saudi Arabia is substantially high and equals $2666; the microfinance in Saudi Arabia is evolving and the differences identified and discussed above imply that the SAMFIN and global models are quite different in approach and modalities.
