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Purpose: Using an integrated theoretical model, this study aims to examine the moderating role of gamification in influencing intentions to use mobile payment applications in Bahrain. Design/methodology/approach: The current examination happens to be the first approximation in the context of Bahrain wherein an extended TPB-based model integrating variables from TAM and UTAUT2 is used along with gamification and situational influence to examine the intentions to use m-payment applications. Findings: The findings revealed that among the variates of the TPB, AT and PB significantly affect the intentions (IN) to use m-payment applications in Bahrain, but SN fails to affect intentions, similarly SI also fails to affect intentions thereby proving that the pandemic fails to drive the intention of the population under study toward using m-payment applications. However, when the application offers gamification (GM) features, SI significantly affects intentions through GM, thus experience along with situation drives intentions and this becomes the major theoretical contribution of the study. Practical implications: This examination offers useful practical implications in the form of the findings revealing that GM affects intentions to use m-payment applications and that GM moderates the relationship between perceived risk (PR) and IN, as well as SI and IN, which can be used by the service providers to improve the user experience and achieve better acceptance of their application. Originality/value: The novelty of the study lies in testing the integrated theoretical model in the context of a GCC nation, Bahrain.

The current study investigates how institutional constraints and firms’ and entrepreneurs’ characteristics affect business recovery. Some elements have not yet been rigorously examined in the existing literature, especially not concerning the post-communist countries’ business recovery component and the same is the research gap current study intended to address. To evaluate the study model, ordinal logistic regression was used. More than 300 valid questionnaires are collected from the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Serbia. The findings show that factors such as firm tenure and size, location, sector, entrepreneurial motivation, product change, etc., have conflicting effects on business recovery. Some of the outcomes of the present study is supported by the existing studies and some requires further research. The study focuses on the less explored independent variables and their association with business recovery, specifically on SMEs, which highlights the paper’s originality. The output of the current study adds to the existing literature of business recovery and institutional constraints. Policymakers interested in removing institutional limitations and promoting a quicker business recovery for SMEs are drawn to the research. The study findings are also helpful from a managerial standpoint because business owners and managers significantly impact decisions about entrepreneur motivation, product change, and other issues.

The article aims to present important attributes of human resource management in the context of CSR and quantify the differences in the attitudes of SMEs depending on the implementation of the CSR concept in the SME segment of the Visegrad Four countries (V4: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary). The fulfilment of the research objective was supported by empirical research conducted in June 2022 in the segment of SMEs in the V4 countries. In this research, the attitudes of SMEs in the field of human resource were investigated in the context of the application of the CSR concept. The data collection was carried out by a renowned external company MNFORCE using "Computer Assisted Web Interviewing" (CAWI Research Method) according to the questionnaire created by the research team. The MNFORCE agency ensured an adequate structure of the respondents in terms of their size and the representativeness of the research in terms of the number of respondents. The selection of respondents was carried out using the method of random selection from the agency's professional database. The research was conducted on a sample of 1,398 respondents who were owners or top managers in the company. Respondents were divided into two groups in each V4 country. In the first group, there were SMEs which answered the statement: When managing the company, I consider the concept of CSR positively (Group A), and in the second group, there were SMEs who answered this statement negatively (Group B). The research results confirmed that Group A has a significantly better approach to Human Resources Management (HRM). This group better evaluates the importance of human capital for the company, perceives the need for HRM within the corporate management system more intensively, regularly evaluates performance and better motivates them to innovate, applies a participative management style to a higher degree and devotes a lot of its time to HRM.

Research background: The research has two objectives and employs a serial mediation approach. First, using the general strain theory, it examines the mediating role of negative feelings and impact of economic adversity on people's risk tolerance and prudent financial behavior. The second is determining the various categories' variations according to age. Purpose of the article: The study's main objective is to evaluate financial behaviour of people with lower and medium incomes after the second wave of COVID-19 in India, and to contribute to the body of knowledge on general strain theory. Methods: The study examined the proposed framework and tested the serial mediation model based on the general strain theory used as a survey method for data collection, targeting lower and middle-income individuals in India's most populated state. The study applied PLS-SEM to test the framed hypotheses. Furthermore, the Kruskal Wallis test was applied to identify the difference in the various groups classified based on age. Findings & value added: The results reveal that economic hardship significantly influences improved financial behavior. Risk aversion attitude, loneliness, and depression mediate the relationship between economic hardship and financial behavior. Moreover, the study found quite a few significant differences between the different age groups. The present study will add to the existing literature on financial behavior under the scope of general strain theory and probably be among the few that test general strain theory with financial variables impact on lower and middle-income group individuals from a developing nation in post-COVID-19 period.

There is no substantial evidence that exists in the literature to establish the link between financial advice and financial capability fully establishes, even though 'getting help' is identified as an important aspect of financial capability. This study sets out to fulfil a couple of objectives. Its primary goal is to investigate the effects that a combination of financial literacy elements (financial attitude, financial knowledge, and financial behaviour), financial advice as well as financial satisfaction have on individuals' financial capability, and secondly, to test and prescribe the improved scale of financial capability measurement. This research has been administered in Spain at an individual level. Hierarchical regression method along with Z-test were used. Regressions' outcomes reveal that financial constructs positively impact the individuals' financial capability. From the viewpoint of policymakers, it is vital to fully comprehend the significant factors influencing financial capability to plan better strategies to empower the citizens with adequate skills, abilities, and behaviour so to succeed in dealing with financial matters in daily basis. The originality and value added to the present study is two-fold. Firstly, it comprehensively examines the wide-ranging financial indicators seen as critical in determining financial capability, which remain yet not quite covered in other studies. Second. both indicators used to measure the financial capability revealed no substantial differences, therefore an improved composite scale is prescribed as useful in measuring financial capability in future research.

This study aims to find the role social networking sites (SNSs) have in the form of expert opinions and blogs available at digital platforms, on financial product choice (FPC). How do social blogs and online expert opinions influence people’s purchasing decisions when using a TPB-based model? The research is conducted in northern India on an individual-level survey basis. The effects of the chosen variable on purchase intentions through the theory of planned behavior were examined by partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) using SMART-PLS 3.2. The results revealed that social media platforms have a positive impact on individuals’ FPCs through blogs and opinions. This study adds to the literature by providing insights into the impact of social media on financial product selection in a developing country like India, an area that is not much explored. More so, there is no conclusive literature available in the Indian context using gender as a moderator over TPB while examining intention to invest in financial products. The study provides a better understanding of investment behavior using online social platforms, blogs, and online expert opinion to policymakers and regulators like SEBI and service providers for enhancing the reach of their services. However, constraints such as dealing with self-reporting and generalizing findings to various situations are expected to be overcome with additional research in the field. © 2022 K. J. Somaiya Institute of Management.

The extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) model extensively explains consumers' behaviour. However, from the service providers' perspective, understanding the role of generational cohorts in technology acceptance is necessary. The paper explores this role in mobile banking adoption by investigating its moderating effect on the linkages between the antecedents of the UTAUT2 model and behavioural intention. The article uses the partial least square method and regressions with generation as a multi-categorical moderator to investigate the moderating effect in a sample of 959 individuals from South-Eastern Europe. Findings reveal that generations govern most of the linkages between the antecedents of UTAUT2 and behavioural intention. These relationships were stronger for generation Y than generation Z, while there were no differences between generation X and Y. The paper contributes to the literature by providing theoretical and practical insights in the context of developing countries.

Research background: According to the EU agenda, CSR should be considered an integral element of the current organizational strategy, including SMEs. While the debate continues about the optimal approach for successful CSR adaptation in SME, yet there is a need to shed light on the impact of owner-manager's demographics on CSR practices. Purpose of the article: The paper aims to examine whether owner-manager's demographics (age, gender, education) matter for the implementation of CSR or not. Methods: The study is based on a questionnaire filled in by owner-managers of SMEs operating in Czechia (454) and Slovakia (368). Factor analysis and nonparametric methods are used to test the hypotheses. Findings & value added: This study shows that the relationships between CSR and ownermanager's demographics are not alike between Slovakia and Czechia. Compared to owners, the evidence shows that the Czech managers are more oriented toward the CSR practices, while in Slovakia there is no difference. Such finding can be explained by Hofstede culture difference. In addition, analysis demonstrates that female Slovaks are more oriented to CSR than men, while it is not true in Czechia. Moreover, Czech individuals who graduated in the same field as their business are more oriented to the CSR, whereas in Slovakia this is not. In addition, young and old Slovak entrepreneurs are more oriented to the CSR than those 35-55 years old, manifesting a U-shape type of relationship. The originality of this work is manifested by the fact that it enriches the literature since it is among the first studies to analyze the relationships between ownermanager's demographics and CSR in the SME segment for Czechia and Slovakia.

Small-medium enterprises (SMEs) have a huge and not fully maximized potential to address the socio-economic challenges that emerging economies are facing. This study assessed the contributions of SMEs in an emerging economy, using ADANCO version 2.0 of the partial least square structural equation model (PLS-SEM). A pre-tested structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 375 employees of SMEs in the fashion, microfinance, and hospitality sectors in four major business regions in Ghana, namely the Greater Accra, Central, Western and Ashanti Regions. The results reveal that SMEs continue to provide maximum support and contributions to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as well as employ about 70 percent of the entire working population. The study recommends that SMEs should receive greater attention from the government. © Foundation of International Studies, 2022.

This study investigates the linkages between the antecedents of the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) model and an individual demographics in four developing countries in Southeast Europe. Three unexplored linkages are introduced, such as employment status, living settlement and financial experience. The article applies the partial least square and non-parametric methods to examine the proposed associations from a dataset of 959 individuals. Evidence reveals that those individuals who are employed, live in urban areas, and have financial experience scored higher in the UTAUT2 constructs. The article suggests the inclusion of additional moderating factors into the UTAUT2 model, which gives a better understanding of the individuals’ technology adaption to scholars and practitioners. © 2021 International Management Institute, New Delhi.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the determinants of financial advice with a special focus on the cultural role in the influence of risk tolerance on seeking advice for financial issues. Financial literacy is covered by financial attitude, behaviour and knowledge. Financial inclusion is the other factor considered in the conceptual framework, as an indicator which can enhance both financial behaviour and financial advice. The research is based on primary data collected in two European nations, manifesting differences in culture, which gives the possibility to test the uncertainty avoidance role in the above relationship. This particular focus is the novelty of this work, as it sheds light on the importance of culture while designing policies with the aim to enhance individuals' financial literacy and advice. The hypotheses are tested by using Partial Least SquareStructural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) method. It was found that financial behaviour improves as financial inclusion gets better, along with financial attitude and knowledge. Furthermore, financial advice is positively influenced by financial inclusion and risk tolerance and partly by financial literacy. Additionally, findings demonstrate that culture does matter in explaining differences between countries. Culture in this paper is represented by uncertainty avoidance, as one of the Hofstede's culture dimension. Individuals from countries that manifest a very high preference for avoiding uncertainty reflect a negative relationship between risk tolerance and financial advice. The paper offers useful insights for policymakers and industry leaders in understanding the most influential factors on financial advice. This enables them to scheme policies and services aimed at equipping citizens with knowledge and skills to make the best use of their financial resources.

Our research examined the attitudes of owners and managers of small and medium-sized enterprises in the V4 countries, who behave responsibly - they use corporate social responsibility in their managerial practice on issues focused on the market and operational area of business. The paper is based on a questionnaire survey with data collection from September 2019 to January 2020. Statistical methods of Pearson's chi-square and z-score were used to assess the hypotheses. The results proved that there are significant differences in companies in services and tourism in the context of implementing the CSR concept. Entrepreneurs who implement social responsibility with a significant positive difference agree that a company places great emphasis on the innovation of its products and services. Researchers found that the sector has an impact on the perception of decreasing customers' requests on specific products/services. We found that corporate social responsibility and its implementation in corporate practice positively affects the relationship of V4's small and medium enterprises in the services and tourism sector to service production innovation issues, which helps increase business performance and decline customer complaints. © 2021 Center for International Scientific Research of VSO and VSPP. All Rights Reserved.

Social media has become explosive, permeating every sphere of the socio-cultural lives of individuals and businesses, and causing nations to technologically evolve. The dramatic growth in the adoption and use of social media has become beneficial to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), significantly contributing to resolving a nagging challenge of effectively advertising their goods and services. Consequently, SMEs can achieve business growth and sustainability through increased adoption and harnessing the opportunities provided through the use of social media. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided an impetus for both consumers and SME businesses to leverage interaction through social media, which may lead to business growth. This research thus sets out to identify how social media contributes to the growth of SMEs within a developing country context. To accomplish this objective, primary data was collected from SMEs in the hospitality industry across the sixteen administrative regions of Ghana using survey and simple random sampling techniques. Questionnaires were distributed to the managerial staff of each randomly selected survey participant. Out of the 900 questionnaires distributed, 718 were filled correctly for the data analysis. The researchers quantitatively analyzed the responses using Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling(PLSSEM) statistical software ADANCO 2.0 version. The results indicated that Small and Medium Enterprises are capable of using social media for customer attraction, business marketing strategy, communication channel and increased financial performance. © 2021 John Amoah et al., published by Sciendo 2021.

Properly designed Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs can significantly enhance SMEs’ stakeholders’ relationships. The article aims to understand SMEs managers’ and owners’ perceptions of CSR’s impact on personnel risk management in V4 countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia). The online survey was conducted from September 2019 to April 2020 based on a sample of 1,585 respondents. The research questions were validated using descriptive statistics, the Chi-square method and the Z-score. The findings indicate that “CSR positive entrepreneurs” significantly consider people to be the essential company capital; therefore, the entrepreneurs are more optimistic about the intensity of personnel risk, they are more optimistic about the error rate of their employees, and they more highly evaluate employees’ efforts to increase performance. The novelty of the article lies primarily in its contribution to the understanding of CSR practices in SMEs. Firstly, it sheds new light on the mechanisms linking CSR and employee outcomes in SMEs, which is still not widely researched. Secondly, the study elaborates on CSR activities’ relevance in the SMEs’ context and perspective on making CSR policy effective. © 2021, Czestochowa University of Technology. All rights reserved.

This paper investigates direct and indirect impacts of an individual's digital engagement on their financial satisfaction considering a significant role of an individual's financial capability and financial advice. The study is administered on the individual level, surveyed the working youth in northern India. PLS-SEM were employed using SMART-PLS version 3 for a confirmatory analysis and structural model assessment. Digital engagement has been established as a vital factor substantially influencing the individual's financial advice, financial capability and financial satisfaction both directly and indirectly. The outcome of the study strongly favours the role and importance of digital engagement in the individual's financial satisfaction. What is more, this paper contributes to the current knowledge by clarifying digital engagement as a possible predictor of financial capability, financial advice and financial satisfaction in the context of a low-income, developing country and applies it as a variable with the selected financial constructs. The originality and novelty of the study may be found useful to design effective policies. © 2021 Khan Khurram Ajaz et al., published by Sciendo.

The purpose of this study is to elucidate the practices that have accounted for the survival of hotels in a developing nation. The study is a qualitative inquiry; the researchers saw the need to adopts document analysis as a methodology to achieve the study objective. The usage of document analysis was to have access to a voluminous scientific paper published in the study area and to make a concrete revision out of that. The study centered on hotel industries in mid-sized to large enterprises. The database of Web of Science, Google Scholar, and Scopus was used to access the information needed through the keywords search to draw a meaningful conclusion. The researchers discussed the impacts of decision-making, technology adoption, and human resources by management on hotels. In all, thirty-Nine scientific papers were used out of the numerous papers downloaded which were all published in English. The study, therefore, has both theoretical contributions to literature and likewise to industry players or practitioners in the current era of the business environment in the field of hotel industries. A study limitation is also discussed in the study. © The Authors, (2021). All Rights Reserved.

Financial decision-making through social media blogs and opinions is an area not much explored by the researchers. This study intends to understand the perceived usefulness of social media in financial decision-making amongst individuals and groups based on demographic similarities and social parameters. This paper aims to understand the perception of various subgroups in society within the large population sample. The paper applies Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric tests to examine the proposed research questions from a dataset of 201 individuals residing in two most populated states in Northern India. The analysis reveals the differences between different groups categorized based on generation, financially dependent, educational background, occupation, and geographical location. In terms of social media's perceived utility in financial decision-making, results suggest that segregated groups based on cohort generation and occupation have significant variations relative to others. Based on the educational context, all other segments, number of financially dependent, geographical location, were found insignificant. The novelty of the paper lies in investigating the perceived usefulness of social media in financial decision-making amongst various homogenous groups based on demographics in a developing country. The study outcomes can be useful for the financial service providers and social media platforms in comprehending consumer behavior to devise an innovative marketing strategy for financial products targeting specific segments through enhanced coordination between them. © This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The focus of the present paper is to identify and defines the important factors of strategic management in SMEs with a specific focus on the service sector and to compare its current situation in the Czech Republic and Slovak republic firms. To shape the study, survey-based research planned and conducted in the Czech Republic and Slovak republic over SMEs in the service sector. The data were collected from the owners or top-level managers, the total sample used in the study was 822, 454 respondents from the Czech firms and 368 firms from the Slovak republic. The study employs basic statistics tools, percentages and mean values, used Z-score to compare the respondents in the Czech Republic and Slovak republic. The major findings of the study reveal that majority of the firms in both the countries use strategic management as an integral part of corporate governance and believe that strategic management usage improves the competitiveness of the firms and its stability in domestic and foreign markets. Another interesting finding reveals that the business sector is not a statistically significant factor in evaluating the sources of strategic risk, found from the firms of both countries. The paper adds to the existing literature of SMEs, investigated the use of strategic management tools for their sustainability and competitiveness. As the key aspects of strategic management are much used in large size organization but less explored in the smaller segment. The outcome of the study can help to understand the SMEs' attitude towards strategic management usage. It is very useful for long term survival, stability, and expansion, as both countries' economy is heavily depending on the SMEs.

Personnel risk significantly affects the operation of small and medium-sized enterprises. The aim of the paper is to define and present significant factors affecting the perception of personnel risk in the SME segment, and compare the current status and development in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The empirical research was conducted in 2020 in the SME segment in the Czech Republic and Slovakia via an online questionnaire, using a sample of 822 respondents. The obtained data were evaluated using the Chi square and Z score. Personnel risk significantly affects the SME segment and its business activities. This risk is perceived as the most significant business risk in both countries, even though its intensity is moderate and does not have a heavy negative impact on SMEs' activities. The overall evaluation of personnel risk's impact on SMEs' activities is similar in both countries. The evaluation of employee turnover was relatively positive, as a considerable part of entrepreneurs stated that turnover is low and does not have a negative impact on their business. The evaluation of turnover was similar in both countries. Based on entrepreneurs' statements, there are certain gaps in employee error rate, which affects their business. Slovak entrepreneurs provided a worse evaluation of the quality of their employees than the Czech entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs in both countries are dissatisfied with the way their employees strive to improve their performance or how they compete among each other. The comparison based on business size and age did not yield significant differences, nor did it provide a clear trend despite the general belief presented in literature that larger enterprises have a better access to important fields of business management.

This study contributes to the literature by offering insights over the relationship between job satisfaction and work stress with employees' motivation among travel agencies in India. The paper aims to determine the impact of job satisfaction and work stress on employees' motivation level with a specific focus on the moderating impact of employees' expertise and marital status in the context of travel agencies in Southern India. A survey was conducted over employees of travel agencies in Southern India by adopting scales from the extant studies, and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling through Smart PLS. The outcome of the study reveals that job satisfaction has a strong significant effect on employees' motivation, unlike work stress and employees' expertise has a partial significant moderating effect on the relationship between work stress and motivation. The study stressed much about the combined effects of the mediators. The present study has tested the new composite scale to measure the overall motivational level, unlike the previous studies. The survey was conducted between November 2019 and December 2019 and entails 164 respondents, the majority of the subjects are millennials between 18 and 35 years, with 43.3% having master's degree, all were found to be pre-qualified for the investigation. © 2020 LLC CPC Business Perspectives. All rights reserved.

This paper presents an integrated framework for understanding the determinants of financial satisfaction in the context of two European nations with different cultural environments. The direct, indirect and interactive effects were tested through the path analysis method. It was found that to be financially capable is imperative because it governs the impacts of financial attitude and financial knowledge on financial satisfaction. Moreover, findings show that culture matters in explaining differences between countries. Hence, individualistic societies, compared to collectivistic ones, reflect a stronger relationship between financial attitude and financial satisfaction. Additionally, countries showing a high propensity in avoiding uncertainty reflect a negative association between risk tolerance and financial satisfaction, while those lacking such preference manifest a positive relationship. © 2020 The Economic Society of Australia