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Exploring the Impact of External Rewards on E-Government Services Adoption: Empirical Evidence from Jordan
Get PDFThis research investigates how external rewards influence citizens' adoption of e-government services in Jordan, using data from the 2021 Technology and Internet Survey. Extending the UTAUT model, it incorporates external rewards as an extrinsic motivator. Findings show rewards significantly impact adoption, varying by location, age, income, education, and digital skills. It contributes to understanding e-government demand and offers policymakers strategies to increase adoption rates, fostering a more inclusive digital ecosystem
Did Biden-Harris’s Reforms on the Paycheck Protection Program Reduce Racial Disparities in Lending?
Get PDFIntroduced under the Trump-Pence Administration, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) provided short-term relief loans to small American businesses during the peak of the Coronavirus pandemic. The initial design of the PPP faced significant criticism from researchers due to racial disparities, among other issues, in its lending process. Minority groups received smaller PPP loan amounts during the original two tranches released in 2020. To increase equitable access for all, in February 2021 the Biden-Harris Administration enforced swift changes to the initial PPP aimed at favouring access to PPP loans for minority-owned small businesses that had been disadvantaged by the program’s original design under the Trump-Pence Administration. By exploiting a granular dataset of 1,759,270 PPP loans granted between Q2 2020 and Q2 2021 and by implementing a difference-in-differences approach (DiD), this paper provides novel evidence on the effectiveness of the Biden reforms in reducing racial bias within the Paycheck Protection Program. Indeed, we observe a significant increase in the volume of PPP loans granted to minority-owned businesses in the period following the Biden-Harris Administration’s reforms. Furthermore, among different minority groups, the reforms appear most effective for Native American minority groups (including American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and/or Other Pacific Islanders), followed by Black Americans and Asian business owners. Our findings offer novel contributions to the existing literature on institutional discrimination, particularly regarding the initial PPP design. Our findings are especially valuable for policy makers as they underscore the importance of radical changes in addressing racial disparities. Our paper also offers evidence of how a public credit guarantee program should be designed to empower and promote economic inclusion for all, regardless of ethnicity, aligning with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals
Capitalism Reloaded
Get PDFAvailable Open Access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND license. In Capitalism Reloaded, Peter Bloom charts a pivotal shift from the well-known military-industrial complex to a new 'Authoritarian-Financial Complex'. Unlike its predecessor, which centred on armaments and defence, this emerging power structure fuses financial interests with advanced surveillance and digital control, turning social repression into a lucrative industry. Bloom introduces a ground breaking theory of 'complex power', where control itself becomes a central driver of capitalism, shaping economies and societies. Bloom explores how this insatiable demand for security and profit extends beyond traditional authoritarian regimes, permeating everyday life and eroding democratic freedoms. This book challenges readers to confront the deep entanglements of modern capitalism before they solidify into a techno-authoritarian order
Social Entrepreneurial Marketing and Innovation in B2B Services: Building Resilience with Explainable Artificial Intelligence
Get PDFExplainable artificial intelligence (XAI) and other digital technologies are altering the nature of social entrepreneurship, marketing, and other service activities. The structures and strategies of entrepreneurs undergo radical change as a result of the impact of XAI on marketing and innovation. Despite the increased interest in business to business (B2B) literature, there are limitations on how and what circumstances the activities of B2B marketing on social entrepreneurship. Therefore, this study outlines how XAI will impact B2B services by building resilience during and after crisis events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. To develop an in-depth understanding on the theories of social entrepreneurship, B2B marketing, and emerging technologies, this study set apart and conceptualize relevant factors and linkages. The result shows that based on a survey of 295 samples of B2B services entrepreneurial businesses, XAI enhances the establishment of a sustainable resilience for B2B marketing activities and contribute to building social entrepreneurial strategies for B2B marketing innovation
DFA: Dynamic Frame Alteration For Video Manipulation Attack in IoT Environments
Get PDFThe advent of Internet of Things (IoT) technology has revolutionized disaster management, providing real-time monitoring and enhanced response capabilities for critical situations like floods. Despite these advances, IoT systems are increasingly vulnerable to cyber-attacks, particularly data manipulation attacks that target video feeds. This paper presents a novel attack technique named Dynamic Frame Alternation (DFA) aimed at evading standard detection algorithms. Unlike traditional attacks like replay, frame injection, and video stream hijacking that modify frames in a linear or bulk approach, DFA strategically alters frames based on real-time changes in video attributes, such as color consistency and object presence. Leveraging metrics like the Structural Similarity Index Measure (SSIM) to detect optimal moments for frame manipulation, DFA enhances attack stealth by maintaining low detectability and resource usage. Experimental results, obtained from implementations on an embedded board platform, demonstrate that DFA consistently achieves lower detection rates when compared against traditional attacks while applying popular detection algorithms
A New Social Corporate Purpose: Stakeholders, Legitimate Expectations and Unfair Prejudice
No full textThis article explores a legal solution, via the legitimate expectations doctrine, to calls for reform of corporate purpose away from shareholder value maximisation and profits, towards more socially-orientated goals, in the form of social corporate purpose (SCP). Such a reform potentially facilitates more sustainable business operations, environmental protection, as well as business respect for human rights. The proposed legal solution amends UK law but would also be applicable to other jurisdictions that define corporate purpose as narrowly related to the shareholder.
The proposed solution begins with the concept of legitimate expectations from UK law, developed in public law jurisprudence, but also present in UK company law, via the unfair prejudice action. It is argued that the unfair prejudice action, applicable to shareholders only, should be made available to all stakeholders. This extension can be justified with reference to the wider legitimate expectations doctrine in UK public law, on the basis that the underlying theoretical justifications for such legitimate expectations in public law also apply to the stakeholder-company relationship
Surveillance evangelism: Private technology companies and the digital futures of crimmigration control
Get PDFThis article contributes to criminological research on surveillance and border technologies. By analysing private security companies’ visions of future technologies as surveillance imaginaries, I argue that these companies can be conceptualized as ‘surveillance evangelists’. Rather than marketing existing technologies, surveillance evangelists aim to convince state agencies and the wider public about the desirability and plausibility of particular – contingent and contestable – technological futures. Private security companies’ visions of digital borders across the African continent contribute to the ideological normalization of crimmigration control, by promoting digital futures in which technologies of criminal justice and border control are fully interoperable. The notion of evangelism is useful for highlighting the speculative, ideological nature of these imaginaries as well as the postcolonial hierarchies that underpin the construction of technical expertise relating to digital crimmigration control
The Reliability of Physical Performance Testing Within Elite Adolescent Pre-Professional Ballet Dancers.
Get PDFIntroduction: Evaluating and training strength qualities is crucial for the physical development of ballet dancers. Whilst data is available as to the sensitivity of strength tests for detecting changes in athlete populations, between-session reliability for adolescent ballet dancers is yet to be determined. This study aimed to determine the between-session reliability of physical performance tests in elite adolescent ballet dancers.
Methods: Depending on the test, a cohort of 25 to 54 pre-professional ballet dancers (9 -30 males, 14-29 females) participated in a series of 6 physical tests across 12 sessions. Each testing session involved performing 1 strength test, with retesting administered 7 days later. The testing protocol included single-leg isometric squat, single-leg isometric plantarflexion, countermovement jump, standing single-leg countermovement jump, drop jump from 30 cm, and for males, seated overhead press to voluntary failure using 30 kg. Data was analyzed using a pairs sample t-test, interclass correlation coefficients and measures of absolute reliability including values of minimal detectable change.
Results: Pairs sample t-tests revealed no systematic bias was present between trial 1 and 2 for each test. Across all tests, interclass correlation coefficients ranged from good to excellent (.89-.98), and coefficients of variation were 2.6% to 6.5%.
Conclusion: These results indicate strength testing can reliably be integrated into a comprehensive physical performance testing battery to identify changes associated with improved physical performance across the academic year for adolescent ballet dancers. Based on the minimum detectable change values, changes in jump performance across the range of tests employed in this study can likely be detected after relatively short training periods. However, maximal isometric strength tests such as the single-leg squat may require longer than 6 weeks to detect performance changes. The current study expands the testing options for ballet training centers and high-performance settings, ensuring confidence in accurately measuring physical changes
Why Protectors become Predators? Violence against Civilians by AMISOM Peacekeepers in Somalia
Get PDFThis study investigates the phenomenon of peacekeepers resorting to lethal violence against
civilians, despite their mandate to protect them. While existing literature acknowledges
that some peacekeepers perpetrate human rights abuses, including sexual exploitation and
excessive force, there has been a notable neglect of studies on lethal violence within the
broader spectrum of peacekeeping misconduct. I propose and evaluate two explanations:
the revenge hypothesis, suggesting emotional responses to attacks on comrades as drivers
of violence, and the show of force hypothesis, where violence is an unintentional byproduct
of deterring perceived threats. Using original survey data and an event dataset from AMISOM in Somalia, I leverage the random exposure to Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).
Results suggest that while IED attacks on peacekeepers are linked to subsequent violence
against civilians, lethal force is primarily used following the loss of a fellow peacekeeper due
to an IED attack, supporting the revenge mechanism. These insights reveal the intricate
interplay of emotions and peacekeeping dynamics, providing insights into the origins of abusive behavior
Private Property Rights in Company Ownership in Nigeria: Neoliberal Policies and Structural Injustice
Get PDFAfter World War II, many countries, including Nigeria, embraced Keynesian “welfarist” policies to stimulate economic growth and enhance the well-being of their citizens. However, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a global economic crisis prompted a shift towards neoliberalism, leading to the commodification of social institutions and the implementation of policies such as privatization, trade liberalization and deregulation in Nigeria. This shift had a significant impact on Nigeria’s socio-legal economy, particularly in terms of property rights in company ownership. The article raises concerns about the structural injustice and growing inequality resulting from these neoliberal policies. It advocates for a legal framework that addresses these issues and proposes reconceptualizing private property rights in company ownership in Nigeria. This proposed framework aims to counter the dominance and power of property-owning elites and mitigate the structural injustice induced by neoliberal policies in Nigeria