The COVID-19 pandemic has raised many issues for higher education institutions, one of which is the continued decline in funding and an increased emphasis on effectiveness and efficiency. Performance-based budgeting is being adopted in organisations to allocate resources more efficiently, and Chinese public universities are no exception. The present study explicitly aimed to examine the relationship among staff capacity, performance-based budgeting, and organisational performance in Chinese public universities. It also investigated the role of top management support as a moderator. A purposive sampling method was used to select a total of 271 participants who agreed to participate in an online survey. A multimethod approach combining partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), the PROCESS macro and necessary condition analysis (NCA) was adopted. The PLS-SEM results indicated that performance-based budgeting had a positive relationship with university performance and served as a mediator between staff capacity and university performance. The moderated mediation results showed that top management moderated the relationship among the selected variables. The NCA results suggested that both staff capacity and performance-based budgeting are meaningful and significant necessary conditions for university performance. The combined results indicated how researchers and practitioners can identify the factors that are critical for university performance and result in the best possible outcomes. This is possibly the first study to use this multimethod approach in accounting research. Overall, this study offers valuable insights into performance-based budgeting implementation in higher education institutions and may serve as a guideline for public universities to improve the efficiency of funding, reduce costs and increase revenues.
The main aim of the current study is to investigate the relationship between governance characteristics, information technology governance, and continuity management during Covid-19 in an emerging economy. The study also examines the moderating role of information technology governance in the relationship between governance characteristics and business continuity management. The quantitative approach is used by utilising a survey questionnaire. A sample of 232 questionnaire surveys has been collected from the board of directors, top and middle management executives, external auditors, information technology experts, and some other respondents. The results were estimated using structural equation modelling. The results indicate that information technology governance has a statistically significant effect on business continuity. Board size, board independence, audit committee independence, audit committee diligence, and external audit have a statistically significant positive effect on information technology governance. Further, the results indicate that information technology governance significantly moderates the effect of board size, board independence, board diligence, audit committee independence, audit committee diligence, and external audit on business continuity. However, information technology governance does not moderate the relationship between board committees and business continuity, which indicates less board involvement in information technology governance. The current research provides insight into the role of information technology governance in business continuity management during crises. The present study provides a unique contribution as it investigates the relationship between corporate governance characteristics, information technology governance, and business continuity management during Covid-19, providing empirical evidence from an emerging country.
The corporate profile translations of multinational corporations (MNCs) in emerging economies such as China possess rich information for narrative analysis. Nevertheless, how the parts of a corporate profile translation form a whole narrative remains undertheorized. This study, therefore, examines the relationality of parts in the corporate profile translations of China's MNCs by integrating William Labov's narrative structure with Margaret Somers' narrative identity theory. Specifically, we conduct a theoretical thematic analysis of how constituents form a whole narrative in relevant corporate profiles, of the shifts in the relationality of parts from the Chinese source texts (STs) to the English target texts (TTs) of these profiles, and of the influences of these shifts on the constitution of corporate identities in the target texts. Our results show that in the corporate profiles of Chinese MNCs, episodes are not randomly selected and related to each other but follow predominant patterns. However, we find no unified patterns in the shifts in the relationality of parts via the corporate profile translation of China's MNCs. We thus reveal how corporations' identities are constituted in diverse ways that reflect their fluid and unique features. Accordingly, our findings have implications for translation studies and corporate communications.
The enforced lockdowns and social distancing measures associated with COVID-19 may have influenced older adults' preferences towards their homes and neighborhoods as well as social spaces. One objective of this research is to determine whether home and neighborhood environments ("first place") affect how satisfied older adults are with their lives during the epidemic. This study also examined the extent to which social spaces that exist in the virtual world ("online third places") affect older adults' life satisfaction when they would have to practice risk-averse behaviors in times of pandemic. To collect data, this study analyzed the responses of 500 active older adults and conducted in-depth interviews with seven older adults who served as neighborhood leaders in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The study found that there is a direct relationship between older adults' satisfaction with their current housing and their overall life satisfaction during the pandemic. Similarly, having a quality neighborhood nearby increases the likelihood of living a satisfied life during the pandemic. Most online third parties, with the exception of instant messaging apps, do not appear to provide older adults with an adequate platform to interact with their friends, participate in social networking, and join communities for emotional support during the pandemic. The findings and recommendations of this study would be very useful in developing effective interventions to promote aging in place during the coronavirus outbreak.
This study examines the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on loss in decision-making, laziness, and privacy concerns among university students in Pakistan and China. Like other sectors, education also adopts AI technologies to address modern-day challenges. AI investment will grow to USD 253.82 million from 2021 to 2025. However, worryingly, researchers and institutions across the globe are praising the positive role of AI but ignoring its concerns. This study is based on qualitative methodology using PLS-Smart for the data analysis. Primary data was collected from 285 students from different universities in Pakistan and China. The purposive Sampling technique was used to draw the sample from the population. The data analysis findings show that AI significantly impacts the loss of human decision-making and makes humans lazy. It also impacts security and privacy. The findings show that 68.9% of laziness in humans, 68.6% in personal privacy and security issues, and 27.7% in the loss of decision-making are due to the impact of artificial intelligence in Pakistani and Chinese society. From this, it was observed that human laziness is the most affected area due to AI. However, this study argues that significant preventive measures are necessary before implementing AI technology in education. Accepting AI without addressing the major human concerns would be like summoning the devils. Concentrating on justified designing and deploying and using AI for education is recommended to address the issue.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the flipped classroom (FC) approach has been a prominent teaching and learning strategy. Despite its popularity, few studies have been undertaken to effectively measure student learning experiences in an FC learning environment. The purpose of this study is to assess the content validity of the Constructivist Learning in Higher Education Settings (CLHES) scale, which is used to measure student learning experiences in a flipped classroom (FC) in the Saudi Arabian higher education environment. The content validity of the eight-dimension scale was examined using the three-tier methodology, including the content validity ratio (CVR) technique, based on the evaluations of selected experts in the field and factor analysis methodology. The results showed that 31 of the 32 items were accepted, with only one item being denied. The findings suggested that this instrument has a strong potential for usage as a valid scale to evaluate the quality of FC teaching and learning among higher education students.