Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal

Political Parties and Electoral Volatility: How (un)stable is the Albanian Electorate?

Alban Reli, Anjeza Xhaferaj — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This paper offers an in-depth analysis of electoral volatility in Albania from 1991 to 2021, a transformative period from a communist regime to a democratic multi-party system. It diverges from Central and Eastern European trends by examining Albania's unique political dynamics and the factors influencing electoral behavior and volatility. Utilizing the Pedersen Index, the study methodically evaluates various determinants impacting party electoral volatility in Albania. The research underscores the significance of high membership rates and robust ground organization within major political parties as key contributors to low volatility levels in Albania's party system, thus providing insight into the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of Albania's political landscape.

Driving Digital Transformation: The Impact of SME Digitalization on Technology Acceptance and Usage in Small and Medium Enterprises of Yemen

Mohammed AL-Ghaili, Anuar Shah Bali Mahomed, Raja Nerina Raja Yusof — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This research investigates the relationships between digitalization, perceived usefulness, attitudes toward using technology, and actual system use of technologies within the context of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Yemen. Using a two-step structural equation modelling approach, the research investigates both direct and mediating effects. Data were gathered from 392 SMEs in Yemen by employing a survey research design. The measurement model was estimated to evaluate the constructs' accuracy, while the structural model was analyzed to investigate the proposed relationships. Findings reveal that SME digitalization significantly enhances perceived usefulness, which positively influences users' attitudes toward technology adoption and subsequently drives actual system use. Specifically, the analysis shows that improvements in digitalization practices lead to heightened perceptions of usefulness and favorable attitudes, ultimately resulting in increased actual system use. Moreover, the results indicate that perceived usefulness and attitudes serve as significant mediators between digitalization and system use. This research contributes to understanding how enhancing perceived usefulness and fostering positive attitudes can facilitate technology adoption in SMEs, providing important implications for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers focused on digital transformation. Overall, the findings emphasize the importance of strategic digitalization efforts to improve operational efficiency and promote successful technology acceptance in small and medium enterprises.

The Effects of Credit, Liquidity, and Operational Risks on GCC Bank Financial Stability: Moderating Role of Board Size

Fatima Alsulmi, Rosli Mahmood, Resul Sapar — Sun, 24 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This paper examined the impact of three types of bank risk: credit, liquidity, and operational risk on bank financial stability. It also examined the moderating role of board size and board frequency meetings. It also investigated the macroeconomic factors such as GDP growth and inflation and their influence on bank financial stability. A sample of listed banks in GCC stock exchanges from 2014 to 2022 using a panel data analysis. The findings highlighted that credit and operational risk significantly impact a bank's financial stability, but liquidity risk is unrelated to the bank's financial stability. In addition, GDP and the Covid-19 pandemic had a negative impact on bank financial stability. Board size significantly moderates relationships between credit risk, operation risk, and bank financial stability.

Factors Influencing Satisfaction for Continuance Intention to Use E-Learning Systems in Higher Education: Delphi Technique

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

E-learning has been widely adopted by universities globally, transforming teaching and learning practices in higher education. While much research has focused on adopting and accepting e-learning, less attention has been paid to students' satisfaction and their continuance intention (CI) to keep using these systems. A literature review reveals low student satisfaction and the intention to continue using e-learning platforms. Despite the extensive studies on continuance intention in e-learning, there is no clear consensus on the factors influencing student satisfaction with continuance intention. This indicates a knowledge gap regarding individual and system aspects contributing to e-learning satisfaction. This study seeks to identify key satisfaction factors affecting continuance intention using a two-round Delphi technique involving ten experts and to develop an initial model of these factors for higher education institutions. This model is expected to help institutions better understand the critical factors driving continuance intention, enabling more informed decisions in evaluating and implementing e-learning projects.

Climate Change and the Struggle for Climate Justice

Chris O. Ikporukpo, Ninane Nina Ikporukpo — Sat, 09 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Climate change is one of the greatest global challenges. The phenomenon and actions taken to address it have thrown up some contentious issues. One of such issues is climate justice. This paper analyses the bases for climate justice and the attempts at achieving it. The basic sources of data were the publications/documents of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Information was also obtained from the publications and websites of the climate negotiation blocs, such as G77 + China and Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), and several Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) such as Climate Action Network, Oxfam, GreenPeace and Third World Network. The climate justice struggle has been necessitated mainly by two driving forces. These are the experiences of the impact of climate change and the environmental legal principles that have emerged from environmental and climate change challenges. In spite of the fact that climate change and its impact are global, vulnerabilities vary across regions and socio-economic groups. The disproportionate impact of climate change is one of the drivers of the struggle for climate justice. The environmental/climatic legal principles that have formed bases for the climate justice struggle derive largely from UNFCCC, the Rio Declaration and the Paris Agreement. They are, to an extent, related to the Principle of Disproportionate Climate Burden. The principles include Common But Differentiated Responsibilities, Polluter Pays, No-Harm (to others) and Beneficiary Pays. Strategies employed in the struggle for climate justice include advocacy, focused negotiations at CoPs, protests/strikes, and litigation. Although, the developing countries have been the leaders in the struggle for climate justice, CSOs have been particularly prominent. The demand for increased financing of climate mitigation and adaptation has been characteristic. The struggle has resulted in more climate action. However, the ultimate focus must be the achievement of net zero emissions.

Transnationalism and Its Impact on the Creation of Collective Agency: The Case of Korean Military Brides in a Korean Immigrant Church in the U.S

Daehoon Han — Sun, 24 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Literature on contemporary immigrants suggests that increasing transnational practices foster agency construction across borders, thereby disjoining geographical space and social space in which identities are constructed and negotiated. While studies pay increasing attention to the linkage between the transnational organizing of economic, political, and cultural activities among immigrant groups with a high level of transnationalism, relatively less attention has been given to the identity construction of immigrant groups without a high level of transnationalism. This study examines the agency dynamics among non-mobile immigrants who develop their agency by creating and negotiating boundaries through identity management practices in the wave of transnationalism that occurs in an immigrant church. Based on focus group interviews with fifteen Korean military brides and participant observation in a Mid-Western Korean immigrant church, the study revealed that through a new social space, Korean military brides not only created a more exclusive, closed, and homogeneous community within a Korean community, but their community becomes broader with comprehensive "imagined communities." This study also suggested that as non-mobile transnational immigrants, this effort is part of their gradual adaptation as well as resistance to assimilation to the wave of transnationalism that makes Korean immigrant communities in the U.S. noticeably transform various structural transformations.

The Interrelation between Corporate Governance Practises and the Financial Performance of Microfinance Institutions in CEMAC

Anyekezeh Kum-Ngong Bin — Sat, 23 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This study aims to examine the relationship between corporate governance tools—specifically board size, board gender diversity, capital structure, ownership structure, and audit—and financial performance of microfinance institutions as measured by Return on Assets (ROA) and Operational Self-Sufficiency (OSS). Quantitative data is employed to identify the relationship between the variables. A dataset comprising forty-four microfinance institutes extracted from the Mix Market database for the period 2000 to 2021 is utilised. The research identified correlations between Microfinance Institutions’ financial performance and their board characteristics, capital structure, ownership structure and audit. The exploratory variables all produced significant results. The study identified significant relationships between the examined Corporate Governance practices and the financial performance of microfinance institutions in CEMAC. Capital structure positively influences the ROA and the constructed financial performance index but negatively influences the OSS of microfinance institutions in CEMAC when ownership structure is accounted for and audit is not accounted for. Ownership structure (those which have NGO and NBFI forms) positively influences the ROA and the constructed financial performance but negatively influences the OSS of microfinance institutions to a significant extent. Constructed board characteristics index (board size and board gender diversity) positively influences the ROA and the constructed financial performance index but negatively influences the OSS of microfinance institutions in CEMAC when ownership structure is accounted for and audit is not accounted for. Microfinance size has a positive effect on ROA and OSS but a negative one on the computed finance performance index. When audit is accounted for excluding ownership structure, we conclude that capital structure positively influences the OSS and the constructed financial performance index but negatively influences the ROA of microfinance institutions in CEMAC. The constructed board characteristics index (board size and board gender diversity) positively influences the OSS and the constructed financial performance index but negatively influences the ROA of microfinance institutions in CEMAC when audit is accounted for and ownership structure not. Being audited by large firms leads to a decrease in OSS, an increase in ROA and a general decrease in the constructed financial performance index in microfinance institutions in CEMAC when ownership structure is not considered. This study highlights the significance of corporate governance tools and their effectiveness in the success of organizations.

School District Superintendents as Transformational Leaders

Lars G. Bjork — Sat, 16 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The educational reform movement in the United States (1983-2024) presented school district superintendents with a wide array of challenges and opportunities. Initially, state and federal policymakers’ called for draconian school and district level accountability and endorsed he notion of top-down management. However, the reality of implementing district-wide, systemic changes focused on improving student learning outcomes influenced a shift in superintendents’ role from manager to teacher-scholar. During the last decade, researchers examined the role of superintendents in Instructionally Effective School Districts (IESD) and reported that they used their managerial prerogatives to initiate and sustain district-wide instructional improvement (Bjork, 2024). Research findings suggest that their involvement hiring and supervising teachers, evaluating principals, clearly articulating instructional and curricular goals, monitoring instructional improvement and, engaging in long-term financial planning for instruction indirectly influence the quality of learning and teaching. Findings from this longitudinal case study extend our understanding of how superintendents’ enact their role as teacher-scholar help to explain their success. Key elements of Transformational Leadership including idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and, individual consideration provided considerable insight into how they enacted their role. In addition, findings suggest that over time followers at different levels of the school district’s organization (teachers, principals and central office staffs) adopted Transformational Leadership dispositions and practices suggesting that it may be viewed as being both multidimensional and multi-directional. These findings may expand our understanding of how superintendents’ transformational leadership may influence the development of professional cultures and enhance student learning.

The Microfinance Institution in Cameroon: Historical Perspectives

Anyekezeh Kum-Ngong Bin — Sat, 16 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Using the sociological approach to critical analysis, my paper examines the evolution of the microfinance institution in Cameroon from a historical perspective. It argues that due to a number of significant changes on the national and international scene, the institution has undergone a number of palpable changes to become what it is obvious today. I aim at showing how these varied changes on the socioeconomic landscape have been informing templates of the banking sector and, by extension, the microfinance sector in the country today.

Exploring the Influence Factors of Digital Entrepreneurship in Improving the Digitization of Small and Medium Enterprises in Yemen

Mohammed AL-Ghaili, Anuar Shah Bali Mahomed, Raja Nerina Raja Yusof — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This research provides valuable insights into the impact of digital entrepreneurship on the digitalization of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Yemen. By integrating the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework, the research examines the role of various factors-technological, organizational, environmental, and individual, affecting technology adoption and utilization in SMEs. The study primarily explores the direct and indirect influences of these factors on actual system use, with a particular focus on the mediating roles of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use in shaping attitudes toward technology adoption. Data were collected through a survey of 392 respondents, and the results were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The measurement model was validated for reliability and accuracy, followed by an evaluation of the structural model to test the proposed hypotheses. The findings highlight the critical role of information and communication technology (ICT) adoption in enhancing both perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. Additionally, the knowledge of IT entrepreneurs and government support were found to uniquely influence perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, respectively. Both of these perceptions, in turn, positively impacted attitudes toward and the actual use of digital tools within SMEs. To address the challenges faced by Yemeni SMEs, it is recommended to enhance digitalization through ICT adoption and promote a pro-technology culture. Policymakers should create a supportive environment via targeted policies, subsidies, and public-private partnerships to foster sustainable growth and competitiveness.

An Overview of Malaysia’s Retail Organic Foods Market and Its Consumption Behavior

Harniyati Hussin, Nabsiah Abdul Wahid — Sat, 09 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Growing global awareness of health and environmental sustainability has significantly increased the demand for organic foods, a trend gaining traction in Malaysia. This research provides a comprehensive overview of consumer consumption patterns and purchase intentions for organic foods in Malaysia’s retail sector, identifying key factors influencing their choices. The study examines Malaysia’s broader food retail landscape, focusing on the growing organic segment and its evolving consumption patterns. It also explores the organic food market, considering domestic production and the availability of imported goods that shape consumer choices and market growth. The study offers practical insights into consumer decision-making within the retail food market by examining consumption behavior, such as purchase intentions. The review uncovers critical insights into the organic food market, including its size, rising demand and consumption trends, government and retailer initiatives, and the demographic profiles of consumers who purchase or intend to purchase organic foods. These findings contribute to existing research on organic food consumption in Malaysia and provide valuable guidance for policymakers, government agencies, and retailers aiming to enhance the adoption of organic foods in the Malaysian retail sector.

The Determinants of Graduate Students on Satisfaction: The Case of Graduate School at University of Internal Affairs, Mongolia

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The present article aims to study the level of satisfaction of the graduate students’ satisfaction on Graduate school in University Internal Affairs, Mongolia /UIAM/. We try and understand the factors which influence graduate student satisfaction in higher education, as well as the consequences of it. We collected and analyzed data from descriptive research can help understand factors on graduate students’ satisfaction. The data were collected from 98 graduate students who study graduate school of the curriculum on Disaster Studies, Border Studies, Law, Crime Studies Law, Police Studies, Forensic science, Information Security, and Economic Security in UIAM. The results, there were indicated positive graduate students' satisfaction of the hypothesis 1 and hypothesis 2. Actually, the results indicated the dissatisfaction of the hypothesis-3. Therefore, it is recommended that the curriculum activities take the necessary measures in order to increase the students’ satisfaction and the level of training activities. Our study is significant in considering both theoretical and practical issues and for practices in graduate school. Data were estimated by Smart PLS 3.0 and SPSS software and Cronbach's alpha index have been used for data analysis and reliability analysis of the questionnaire, respectively.

Perspectives of Agricultural Students at the University for Development Studies on Farming as a Livelihood in Ghana

Quansah, Joseph Yaw Dwamena , Osei, Samuel , Amadu Musah Abudu — Sun, 24 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The study aims to examine the perceptions of agriculture students in a Ghanaian University regarding farming as a sustainable livelihood after graduation. This study is grounded in the structuration theory. The target respondents for the study consisted of 105 final-year agriculture students from the Faculty of Agriculture. A total of 83 students were considered for the sample size which was determined using the Yamane (1967) sample size determination formula. The study adopted a descriptive survey design, anchored in the positivist paradigm. The study used a structured questionnaire for data collection. Descriptive statistics were employed for data analysis. The results revealed that a significant proportion of the students (46.1%) resided in rural areas where agriculture is the primary livelihood activity. Also, the study revealed that about 38.2% of the participants expressed willingness to grow food crops for their livelihood. The findings of the study further revealed that working in an educational institution (Mean= 3.0) was the most preferred livelihood option among participants. The study revealed that the major challenge deterring participants from pursuing farming as a sustainable livelihood is a lack of initial capital to start farming, with 67.1% of participants indicating this as a demotivating factor. The study recommended that government and other stakeholders should provide the necessary incentives in agriculture to arouse students' interest in taking up agriculture-related careers after graduation as a means of livelihood in Ghana.

Research on the Application of Desktop Virtual Reality in Middle School Physics Experiment Teaching under the Cooperative Enquiry Mode

Xiulin Ma, Yu Fan, Teng Wang, Jiayong Wang, Shumin Tian — Sat, 23 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

As one of the important means of assisting experimental teaching, immersive virtual reality is limited by wearable devices in actual teaching environments, making it difficult to achieve large-scale application. In contrast, desktop virtual reality provides a feasible way to solve this problem with its low cost and convenience. However, there is currently a lack of in-depth research on how to effectively use desktop virtual reality to organize teaching activities. In view of this, this study carried out collaborative inquiry-based physics experimental teaching activities with the support of traditional real situations and desktop virtual reality . Through a comprehensive evaluation of the physics experimental abilities and related factors of students in the experimental group, the study found that: under the cooperative inquiry mode, physics experiment teaching organized based on desktop virtual reality technology can not only improve student performance, but also significantly alleviate some students' concerns about physics. fear of experiments, enhance their self-efficacy, and promote students' in-depth understanding of physical phenomena and laws. However, research has also found that overreliance on desktop virtual reality activities may undermine students' ability to design rigorous experiments based on real equipment.