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The Role of Social Media Influencers in Electric Vehicle Adoption in the UAE
No full textDespite growing infrastructure and strong governmental support, electric vehicle (EV) adoption in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) remains low. While economic and technical factors have been widely explored, the impact of social, behavioural, and perceptual influences, especially those imposed by social media influencers, remain inadequately addressed. This study investigates how influencers, trust in influencers, and perceived source credibility affect the consumer intention to adopt EVs in the UAE. A conceptual model was developed and tested based on Social Learning Theory (SLT), Trust Transfer Theory (TTT), and Source Credibility Theory (SCT) utilising Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS 4. Data were collected via an online survey of 205 UAE residents. The findings indicate that social media influencers exert a direct positive influence on the intention to adopt electric vehicles (β = 0.244, p < 0.01), with confidence in influencers serving as a major mediator of this relationship (β = 0.401, p < 0.001). However, source credibility does not significantly moderate the effect of trust on the adoption intention (β = 0.029, p = 0.634). The model exhibited moderate predictive accuracy (R² = 0.506, Q² = 0.419) and robust internal reliability. This research enhances understanding of social influence on sustainable consumption both theoretically and practically, providing evidence-based recommendations for marketing strategies and public policies to promote EV adoption in the UAE
Building Dynamic Capabilities for Enhanced Organisational Performance
No full textThis study investigates absorptive capacity in tourism organisations, focusing on their ability to gain and maintain a competitive edge through agility and value creation from external knowledge. The aim is to improve organisational performance and competitiveness amidst changing environments. The research examines how absorptive capacity affects strategic agility, value creation, and overall performance, emphasizing the importance of acquiring external knowledge for resilience and competitiveness. Past literature highlights strategic agility as a mediator between absorptive capacity and performance, and the role of value creation, especially in service value and customer satisfaction, in enhancing organisational outcomes. The study adopts a holistic view of organisational performance, integrating innovation and operational metrics through Dynamic Capability theory. Using a quantitative, deductive approach with 347 respondents from the UAE’s tourism sector, the research employs PLS-SEM and SmartPLS for analysis. Theoretical contributions include clarifying the significance of external knowledge absorption for tourism organisations and guiding managerial strategies for competitive advantage and market survival. Practical implications stress the need for effective employee training and development to ensure customer satisfaction and organisational resilience
The Integration of AI Into Quality Management in Industries Like Automotive, Healthcare, and Defence
No full textThis study investigates the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into quality management (QM) across the automotive, healthcare, and defence industries. As organisations increasingly seek data-driven solutions to enhance accuracy, efficiency, and regulatory compliance, AI offers transformative potential. The research analyses how AI technologies—such as machine learning, computer vision, and natural language processing—are reshaping quality assurance by enabling predictive and proactive strategies over traditional reactive methods. A mixed-methods approach was adopted, combining quantitative survey data from 100 industry professionals with qualitative insights from six managerial interviews. The survey included ten closed-ended questions, while the interviews were guided by six open-ended prompts exploring the practical impact of AI integration in QM operations. The findings reveal that AI significantly enhances real-time monitoring, defect detection, and predictive maintenance, contributing to improved product quality and operational resilience. Despite its benefits, AI integration poses challenges, including data quality issues, ethical considerations, and infrastructure readiness. These barriers highlight the need for sector-specific frameworks and strategic planning. The study also emphasises the importance of aligning AI systems with existing processes to ensure successful adoption. Overall, this research offers valuable theoretical insights and practical guidance for implementing AI in quality management. It underscores the role of AI in advancing compliance, reducing human error, and fostering continuous improvement in complex, highly regulated industries
BIM-Based Asset Management for Sustainability: A Systematic Review and Bibliometric Analysis
No full textThis study presents a systematic literature review on adding sustainability elements into Building Information Modelling (BIM) to enhance sustainability in the asset management stage of a built asset’s life cycle. Focusing on environmental, economic, and social sustainability dimensions, the review uses bibliometric analysis and systematic content review to identify key advancements and research gaps. The findings reveal that while BIM effectively integrates environmental and economic factors, its application to social sustainability remains underdeveloped. The study underscores the need for a comprehensive framework encompassing all three sustainability dimensions. Additionally, it highlights opportunities to enhance BIM’s functionality by integrating emerging technologies like AI, IoT, and big data, which could enable predictive modelling and real-time sustainability analysis. However, their adoption within BIM practices is still limited. Key recommendations for future research include developing integrated sustainability models, improving stakeholder engagement, and establishing policy frameworks to encourage sustainable BIM practices. This review emphasizes BIM’s transformative role in sustainable asset management while identifying crucial areas for further development
School Inspection Framework Change Factors and their Impact on Inspection Protocols, Practices, and Inspector Competencies in UAE
No full textLimited insight exists on educational policy and operational adaptations of inspector competencies, school protocols and practices in the face of changing school inspection frameworks. This gap emanates from the complex, dynamic, and non-constant nature of school inspection framework change factors. These factors and their salience at any given moment of introducing a new school inspection framework evolve, eluding common or pre-defined conceptual direction. This study utilised systems dynamics theory, complex adaptive theory, communicative action theory, and competency theory of school inspectors, employing a sequential exploratory mixed method to explore the factors of change in the “UAE School Inspection Framework” and closely evaluate the degree to which the change factors affect the protocols and practices as well as the required competencies of inspectors to operationalise the framework. Data were collected from inspectors, educational leaders, and experts in educational systems in the UAE context. The results show that the socio-economic, knowledge economy & education, educational system AI & technology, and inspection visits & outcomes are the main factors that account for the evolution and changes of the UAE framework. Survey evidence establishes that these factors positively influence the inspection protocols & practices. Furthermore, the protocols and practices have an essential and positive role to play in the required inspectors’ competencies. Based on the study’s results, future research to validate these factors and in-depth studies over extended periods are suggested to better understand the dynamic characteristics of school inspection change factors and their impact on schools’ protocols, practices, and inspectors’ competencies. The UAE government and educational entities are advised to adopt a dynamic system perspective to plan and implement changes in the school framework, aligning it with evaluators' competencies to improve future evaluation outcomes, recommendations, and policies
Exploring AI Conversational Chatbot UX Design: Insights from High School
No full textAdvancements in state-of-the-art models and algorithms for chatbots have significantly driven the growth and evolution of human–computer interaction (HCI) in recent years. As a result, numerous authors are inspired to study the most effective interactive chatbot design that can maximize students’ experiences. Despite the fact that high school is one of the most critical stage in a student’s life, there is a lack of studies that focused on developing effective interactive high school advising chatbots. To address this current gap, this study aims to elicit the main effective features for high school advising chatbot. The authors in this study conducted a semi-structured qualitative interview with six high school students in UAE and the MAXQDA Analytics software—ver. 22.6.0 is implemented by processing the thematic analysis to study the findings. The results revealed that high school students recommended the same general interaction design characteristics that was derived from the previous systematic review with emphasizing more into accurate, reliable, and trustworthy short answers with having minimal conversational issues. In addition to that, emotions and empathic factors are less important for high school students
Efficacy of Cultural Competence Training Programme at Ras Al Khaimah Higher Educational Institutions
No full textCulture is the main building block for all people that contains values, beliefs, concepts, respect, faith, religious beliefs, and many other values. Healthcare professionals, especially nursing students, must understand cultural diversity and be aware of cultural competency to deal with patients from diverse cultural backgrounds. This study aimed to investigate the perception and effectiveness of cultural competence training programme for undergraduate nursing students studying at Ras Al Khaimah higher educational institutions. This research study used explanatory sequential mixed method approach with pragmatism philosophical paradigm conducted for 173 nursing students going to the clinical for training. The result of quantitative pre-post-test of cultural competency self-assessment checklist and multiple- choice RQ showed that cultural competency training was significantly effective by the changes of the knowledge and perception of nursing students when using Wilcoxon signed rank test which showed highly significant p < 0.05. Also, the correlation and association between demographic variables and pre-post-test showed highly correlated with year of Bachelor study (p<0.05). For qualitative analysis including evaluation reports and interviews which been coded and themes with subthemes developed showed that student got good benefits from training by changing their knowledge, perception, skills, behaviours, and attitudes toward best cultural competency with high-quality outcomes. The implications to nursing field categories and discussed, and the recommendation based on the finding may involve observation of the students while engaged in clinical training and when providing care and communicate with patients from diverse cultural backgrounds. The conclusion of this research study helps the reader to understand the thinking behind the research and demonstrate the importance of the research
Framework for Mapping Internal Stakeholder Dynamics in Driving Green Innovation Strategies in the UAE Oil & Gas Sector
No full textGlobal population and economic growth placed increasing pressure on natural resources, creating urgent environmental and sustainability challenges for resource-intensive industries. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the oil and gas sector faced heightened risks from divestment movements and the need to align with national sustainability agendas such as Net Zero 2050. Despite ongoing initiatives, the absence of a structured, stakeholder-driven framework for adopting Green Innovation Strategies (GIS) limited progress. This study aimed to evaluate the influence of internal stakeholders—shareholders, employees, suppliers, and technology providers—on the successful adoption of GIS within the UAE oil and gas sector. A sequential mixed-methods design was employed, beginning with a quantitative survey (n=252) analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), followed by qualitative interviews (n=15) to validate and contextualise the results. The findings confirmed that internal stakeholders overall had a significant influence on GIS adoption. Among them, suppliers and technology providers, along with shareholder pressure, emerged as the strongest drivers. In contrast, employee engagement showed no major influence, underscoring the need for greater empowerment and involvement of employees in sustainability initiatives. Organisational and knowledge resources played a clear mediating role, strengthening the pathways between stakeholders and GIS adoption. However, the moderating effect of environmental regulations was weak, suggesting that regulatory frameworks alone were insufficient to alter stakeholder–GIS relationships. The results also revealed that downstream operations, due to their high energy intensity and emissions, represented the most critical stream for GIS implementation. Based on these insights, the study developed the Green Integrated Value Assurance Process (GIVAP), a framework that embeds GIS criteria into governance and project decision-making across all oil and gas streams. This framework provides both theoretical and practical contributions by linking stakeholder theory and the resource-based view to operational decision processes. In conclusion, the research demonstrated that embedding GIS into project governance enhances competitiveness, supports regulatory compliance, and strengthens the UAE’s pathway toward its sustainability ambitions. The study offered actionable recommendations for policymakers and industry leaders while contributing to the wider discourse on environmental innovation in high-impact sectors
Consumer Behaviour, Ecommerce,and Purchase IntentionTowards Brands:The Mediating Role of Consumer Attitude in UAE's online Market
No full textThis research explores the complex relationships between consumer behaviour, e-commerce, consumer attitude, and purchase intention towards brands within the UAE's online market. Drawing on established consumer behaviour theoretical frameworks, the study intends to comprehend how consumer behaviour and e-commerce influence purchase intention towards brands, with a particular emphasis on the mediation of consumer attitude. The research seeks to shed light on the dynamics shaping consumer decisions in the UAE’s evolving digital marketplace, offering insights into how businesses can navigate e-commerce effectively. The study employed a structured questionnaire, adapted from previously validated measurement scales, to gather data from 454 participants in the UAE. The data was analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM) to test the relationships between consumer behaviour, e-commerce, consumer attitude, and purchase intention towards brands. The measurement model was tested to ensure the reliability and validity of the constructs, with satisfactory results confirming the robustness of the model. The structural model was subsequently used to evaluate the hypothesised relationships, providing empirical evidence on the association between the studied variables. The findings reveal several important insights into the UAE's online consumer market. Consumer behaviour and consumer attitude were found to have a significant direct impact on purchase intention towards brands, highlighting the importance of understanding consumer preferences and perceptions. Interestingly, the direct effect of e-commerce on purchase intention towards brands was insignificant. However, the e-commerce demonstrated a significant indirect impact on purchase intention towards brands through consumer attitude, indicating that consumer perceptions of the digital environment play a crucial role in their purchasing decisions. This highlights the importance of fostering positive consumer attitudes to leverage the potential of e-commerce. The study offers actionable implications for policymakers and marketers in the UAE. It highlights the importance of understanding consumer attitudes and creating positive perceptions to drive purchasing behaviour. It recommends that marketers focus on developing digital platforms that enhance consumer attitudes by integrating personalized experiences, social proof elements, and reputation management strategies. Leveraging data analytics to tailor digital interactions and build trust is crucial for driving consumer engagement. Policymakers are encouraged to support initiatives that promote a favourable e-commerce. Overall, in practical and policy terms, the study highlights the need for both businesses and regulators in the UAE to prioritize strategies and frameworks that strengthen consumer attitudes, as this is central to harnessing e-commerce’s full potential for sustainable market growth and competitiveness.
Keywords: consumer behaviour, e-commerce, consumer attitude, purchase intention towards brands, online marke
The Role of Primary School Leaders in Supporting Teachers to Apply Differentiated Instruction and Inclusion in Classrooms in a School in Sharjah, UAE
No full textDifferentiated instruction and inclusion have become an essential part of the modern pedagogy, ensuring that pupils with variant academic levels and educational needs receive equitable learning opportunities. Diverse research highlights the significance of teachers’ application of those approaches; however, limited studies focus on school leaders’ role in supporting teachers to effectively implement them in classrooms, particularly in the UAE context. This study explores how primary school leaders in Sharjah promote Differentiated Instruction and inclusion, and examines the strategies applied, challenges faced, and support provided to educators. Using a mixed-method approach, the study gathers qualitative data via semi-structured leaders’ interviews and quantitative data by a teachers’ questionnaire, besides the data analysis of students’ assessments results. This provides an understanding of leaders’ practices and their effect on differentiation and inclusion. The findings of this study show that school leaders play a vital role in supporting teachers in implementing DI and inclusion. It highlights the obstacles that leaders encounter that may hinder the successful implementation of those approaches. The research highlights the need for leadership strategies, policy implementation, and continuous educators’ support to enable teachers to apply DI and inclusion. This research adds to the existing literature on educational leadership by bridging the gap of knowledge, particularly on the leaders’ role and its impact on inclusive education and DI implementation in the UAE. The findings of this research add valuable insights for instructors, administrators, and policymakers to improve strategies and policies that support inclusive teaching, which impact students’ outcomes and learning progress