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The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships among a set of human resources management (HRM) practices, entrepreneurial traits (ET) and corporate entrepreneurship (CE) in an emerging market such as the Egyptian one.

This research is explanatory in nature where it explains the causal relationships between the variables. Data was collected from 230 human resources (HR) managers and professional serving in top Egyptian financial institutions. Data was analyzed using structural equation modeling with relevant goodness-of-fit statistics.

The results of this study indicate that HRM practices have significant impact on the development of ET of personnel currently operating in the Egyptian financial institutions. Besides, the results confirm the effect of HRM practices on ET, which in turn have significant impact on CE.

This research provides an appropriate direction for HR managers on how to best design HR programs directed toward the development of strong CE orientation. It also highlights the core ET needed to enhance CE in emerging economies. The validated hypothetical relationships of this model serve as the baseline for those managers to plan, execute and measure the consequences of those HRM programs.

Although HRM is widely considered as a critical driving force for CE, there is a remarkable scarcity of empirical research examining the role of ET. The conceptual model tested in this research typically deepens both HRM scholars and managers’ understanding of how they can best connect HRM practices to ET and CE in emerging economies. The findings of this study open the door for a new venue of research in the HRM area of study, particularly in emerging markets that search for a fast-growing rate of economic prosperity. The findings of this study lend support for HRM as an antecedent to CE rather than vice versa.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how a foreign subsidiary operates in emerging markets and integrates market orientation with organizational learning to achieve a competitive lead. It is an attempt to fill an evident gap in the literature of integrating organizational learning into a market-oriented competitive strategy through using a four-step collective learning cycle at General Motors Egypt (GME).

The paper adopts a qualitative case study methodology to thoroughly examine the viewpoints of 90 respondents via in-depth and unstructured interviews with both managers and employees working in a variety of divisions inside GME. An integrative qualitative data analysis approach is used to explore, synthesize, interpret and derive relationships resulting from the collected data.

This work advances the theory of organizational learning by testing the theme of collective learning cycle in a real work setting. It presents a real example of aligning market orientation into a collective learning cycle directed toward achieving competitive advantages.

This study provides scholars and practitioners alike with a real scenario on how and why a four-step organizational learning cycle functions as a building block to generate a competitive advantage. It also discusses the elements of collective learning that are not captured by the four-step collective learning cycle. Factors facilitating market-based organizational learning are also explored. However, the results generated are contingent on the investigated case study circumstances, which are limited in generalizability.

The paper addresses a set of directions through which auto assembly firms leverage both collective learning practices and knowledge-driven strategy to gain competitive advantages. The GME paradigm indicates how a firm can use collective learning not only to respond to an internal need for change but also to react to external market forces and constraints.

This study is the first of its kind to investigate the value of the cyclic learning concept from a strategic viewpoint in a multinational organizational context. It enriches the primarily practitioner literature on aligning collective learning into strategy with rich empirical examination of the learning practices of a leading foreign subsidiary. It resolves a gap in the literature regarding how organizational learning and knowledge management processes are aligned to market-oriented competitive strategy. The paper draws a number of critical research issues that call for refinement of the organizational learning cycle theory.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically examine a comprehensive model that attempts to identify the factors that explain competitive advantage of implementing electronic business (e-business) in an emerging market. It seeks to fulfill an inevitable lack of conducting rigorous and intensive empirical studies on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in which the internet use and e-business applications are on the rise.

This research is descriptive in nature where a quantitative research methodology is deployed. Data are collected using both interviews and e-survey for a sample of 302 Egyptian companies serving in diverse industries. A multivariate partial least squares technique is employed to analyze the collected data.

This study explores various e-business modes and applications widely employed in the MENA region. It also addresses a set of e-business-driven competitive advantages that are mainly generated from supportive ICT environment, major market forces and strategic opportunities, and at last, from electronically driven customers’ relationship initiatives. A number of e-business barriers are claimed to moderate the relationship between those forces and the resulting competitive advantages.

Although this research main framework incorporates important variables based on theoretical and empirical foundations, integrating other factors may extend understanding of how these factors, independently and/or interactively, explain the adoption of e-business and its merit to create distinctive competitive advantage.

This work helps managers and e-business experts alike to comprehend the ways through which firms target the applications of e-business technologies to realize a competitive edge in MENA region. It also helps practitioners and professionals comprehend the interrelationship between the type of forces drive e-business based competitive position and key barriers that deteriorate such a connection in emerging markets.

A model that enables scholars to better understanding the e-business phenomenon in MENA market is developed and validated. This model rests on e-business experts’ perspectives, reflections and it is evidently substantiated by past works in the areas.

Despite considerable growth in literature on Industry 4.0 technologies, the research on the factors influencing the investment on these technologies in pursuit of supply chain 4.0 is yet incipient. The study aims to fill this knowledge void by exploring the perceived drivers and barriers intertwined in the implementation of supply chain 4.0 in the context of food and beverage industry.

Qualitative exploratory research was employed involving 20 semi-structured interviews with senior managers from the Australian food and beverage supply chain. The interviews' data were analysed with VOSViewer software version 1.6.14.

The results unravel that reduction in supply-demand misalignment, fast-changing consumer's needs, threat of legal penalties and cost optimisation are the key drivers; whereas lack of collaboration, organisational inertia and lack of awareness are the critical barriers to implement supply chain 4.0.

The study derives seven propositions and a theoretical framework that need to be empirically corroborated.

Understanding of drivers and barriers will help practitioners to make more informed decision in implementation of supply chain 4.0.

Implementation of supply chain 4.0 can enhance the performance of the food and beverage industry, thus offering more job opportunities and sustained food supply.

This is the first study in exploring drivers and barriers to the implementation of supply chain 4.0; thus, adds new knowledge to the growing body of the literature. The paper introduces a novel method for qualitative data analysis contributing to the methodological development of the supply chain management field.

Patient safety focuses on minimizing risks that might occur to patients during provision of healthcare. The purpose of this study was to explore healthcare practitioners’ attitudes towards patient safety inside different hospital settings in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of healthcare practitioners in main hospitals in Jeddah. Two main hospitals (one governmental and one private) were selected from each region of Jeddah (east, west, north and south), with a total number of eight out of thirty hospitals. Data were collected through the Attitudes to Patient Safety Questionnaire III that was distributed online. The questionnaire used a 5-point scale. Descriptive statistics were used. Comparisons were made by independent t-test and ANOVA. The statistical significance level was set at p < 0.05.

The study included 341 healthcare practitioners of different sexes and specialties in eight major governmental and private hospitals in Jeddah. “Working hours as error cause” subscale had the highest mean score (4.03 ± 0.89), while “Professional incompetence as error cause” had the lowest mean score (3.49 ± 0.97). The total questionnaire had a moderate average score (3.74 ± 0.63). Weak correlations between the average score of the questionnaire and sex, occupation and workplace were found (−0.119, −0.018 and −0.088, respectively).

Hospitals need to develop targeted interventions, including continuing professional development programs, to enhance patient safety culture and practices. Moreover, patient safety training is required at the undergraduate education level, which necessitates health professions education institutions to give more attention to patient safety education in their curricula.

The study contributed to the existing literature on patient safety culture in hospital settings in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The insights generated by the study can inform targeted interventions to enhance patient safety culture in hospitals and improve patient outcomes.

The study investigates the mediating effect of HR flexibility in the relationship between capacity-enhancing HR practices and job performance in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in Egypt.

On the basis of the literature review, the results imply a quantitatively tested conceptual model. The model is empirically validated using the partial least squares method to structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) with survey data from 270 SME owners and managers in Egypt. The sample was selected using a quota sampling approach for small and medium-sized businesses and a proportionate stratification sampling method for the industry and region.

Findings for the sample revealed that capacity-enhancing HR practices affected job performance positively and significantly. The findings also revealed a direct, positive and significant impact of capacity-enhancing HR practices on HR flexibility and HR flexibility on job performance. Functional flexibility was identified as a significant mediator of the capacity-enhancing HR practices-job performance link, whereas behavioural and skill flexibility were not significant mediators for such a relationship.

The study's cross-sectional design is an evident weakness. All variables were self-reported; this may raise issues regarding method bias. Other limitations include the generalisability of the study's findings outside the setting in which it was conducted. The accuracy of the field study results would have been enhanced if they had not been limited exclusively to the geographical confines of Egypt.

The paper proposes many implications emphasising the role of HR flexibility in enhancing the performance of SMEs. The study developed a mediation model to understand how SMEs boost the performance of human resources by focusing on flexibility dimensions. Accordingly, companies may strategically employ flexible practices and provide an environment that encourages skill and behavioural development.

Medical schools aspire to graduate doctors who are competent in interpreting, conducting and publishing scientific research. Hence, the purpose of the paper is explore the impact of a structured compulsory community-oriented, project-based research program in the undergraduate medical curriculum on medical graduates’ future careers, publications and motivation for scientific research.

An online questionnaire was sent through the Alumni Association of the Arabian Gulf University (AGU) to medical graduates who have valid email addresses, seeking information on their scientific productivity along with demographic and current employment data. Responses were collated and analyzed using a standard statistical software package. The chi-square test and p-value were calculated. P-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Completed forms were received from 91 medical graduates. In this sample, almost a quarter of the respondents have published a research paper out of their undergraduate research project, and about 50% have published at least one paper (as main or co-author) after graduation. Both demographic and medical specialty was not related to the doctor's perception of the benefits they have attained from the compulsory undergraduate research program. However, medical graduates who are at senior levels in their medical careers and those who are employed in secondary healthcare are significantly more likely to publish research papers.

The compulsory community-oriented, project-based research program in AGU has positively contributed to the research productivity of graduates, and it would be worthwhile to include such programs as an integral part of the undergraduate medical curriculum.

In this manuscript, the authors aimed to demonstrate the influences of influential parameters in mixed-mode crack propagation phenomenon. The authors attempted to cover almost all surrounding issues of this subject as the authors know simulating of propagating cracks as internal strong discontinuity is a complicated issue.

In this manuscript, the authors demonstrated the influences of influential parameters in mixed-mode crack propagation phenomenon. The authors attempted to cover almost all surrounding issues of this subject as the authors know simulating of propagating cracks as internal strong discontinuity is a complicated issue. Furthermore, three different scenarios for crack growth are considered. In reality, edge-cracked plate, center-cracked plate and cracked plate in the presence of void and inclusion are studied. In fact, by designing suitable artificial neural network's (ANN) architectures all the three aforementioned conditions are trained and estimated through those architectures with very good agreement with input data. Also by conducting a series of sensitivity analysis, the most affecting factors in mixed-mode crack propagation in different situations are demonstrated. The obtained results are very interesting and useful for other researchers and also the authors hope the results would be cited by researchers.

The influential parameters on mixed-mode crack propagation were found in this paper.

The computer code using MATLAB was prepared to study the mixed-mode crack paths. Also using ANNs toolbox, the crack path estimation was investigated.

Hogarth and Einhorn (1990) posited a psychological model for updating beliefs that is based on an anchoring and adjustment process which incorporates a contrast or surprise effect; in particular, the larger the current belief in a hypothesis or outcome, the more it is discounted by negative information and the less it is increased by positive information. The model provides a set of predictions that could be of important implications for financial decisions. It predicts strong recency effects for mixed or conflicting information (negative and positive), and no order effects for consistent information (all positive or all negative). Furthermore, an earlier version of the model (1985) predicts that simultaneous processing of consistent information leads to more extreme responses than the sequential processing of the same information. Einhorn and Hogarth refer to this phenomenon as a “dilution effect.” This paper reports the results of testing these qualitative predictions of the belief updating model. Three experiments involving a content rich scenario of asset valuation judgment were conducted using a sample of 120 subjects enroled in two MBA courses. The results support the model's prediction that there is no order effects attributable to sequential processing of consistent information. The results also support the existence of recency effects for mixed information regardless of the response mode. However, no significant effects were observed for processing consistent information under different response modes.

The dominant theory of individual decision making under uncertainty is the von Neumann and Morgenstern's expected utility model (EUM). Although, this model has gained its popularity from its ability to explain a wide range of attitudes toward risk, empirical evidence over the last three decades has documented paradoxical behavior that is inconsistent with the EUM model. The present study examines in an experimental setting individuals' inconsistent behavior in choosing between two pairs of lotteries known as the Allais paradox. This study extends previous literature on money gamble situations by conducting a series of experiments to test expected utility behavior on auditing student subjects in pure money and audit settings. Two variants of audit settings are examined: overall audit plan case and audit procedure evaluation of internal control case.