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Youth student organizations, particularly Student Union Branches, play a vital role in ideological development and talent cultivation within Chinese higher education. Operating within a unique socio-educational context, these organizations must navigate the complex challenge of enhancing organizational effectiveness while ensuring ideological alignment. This study adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining surveys of 127 student cadres with in-depth case studies of 6 Student Union Branches, to investigate how sophisticated mechanisms for understanding, predicting, and managing individual thoughts and behaviors can improve organizational outcomes. The research proposes an integrated U-P-M (Understanding-Prediction-Management) framework. This includes a multi-layered understanding mechanism based on dynamic monitoring, dialogue, and data insight; a prediction mechanism utilizing intelligent forecasting and proactive intervention; and a management mechanism combining value guidance, organizational optimization, and environmental shaping. Quantitative results show that Student Union Branches implementing the systematic U-P-M framework achieved significant gains: a 28% increase in organizational belonging, a 35% rise in activity participation, and a 42% improvement in task execution efficiency. Qualitative findings further reveal contextual implementation challenges and success factors. This study contributes an evidence-based theoretical framework and reproducible pathways for enhancing youth student organization effectiveness within China's specific educational environment. It highlights the delicate balance between organizational autonomy and ideological conformity, offering valuable insights for educational administrators and student affairs professionals seeking to foster high-quality organizational development.

Increasing access to quality education in South Africa has led to a rise in enrollment by students from diverse backgrounds at higher education institutions. However, first-entering students transition from secondary school to higher education, and it is hypothesized that this will affect students psychologically, socially, and financially. Financially, many higher education students in South Africa rely on the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). This study investigates the relationship between students’ socioeconomic backgrounds and academic success at a South African university. A mixed-methods approach surveyed 74 first-year students in the Extended Curriculum Programme at the University of Venda, South Africa. Findings from regression and correlation analyses indicate that poor and low socio-economic backgrounds among Extended Curriculum Programme students significantly affect their academic performance and success. These findings challenge the notion that disadvantaged backgrounds necessarily hinder student achievement and emphasize the importance of creating an environment that supports students from all socio-economic backgrounds. Eight policy recommendations and strategies are provided to enhance student success and support for diverse socio-economic backgrounds in higher education institutions.

Individuals are becoming more aware of the negative effects of the rapid fashion industry and are shifting to second-hand clothes. Due to its potential to minimize clothing waste, purchasing second-hand garments is reflected as environmentally friendly. Using an online questionnaire survey, this research examines the factors influencing consumers’ purchasing intention of second-hand clothing via the mediation of individualism and product attitude by applying the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 25.0 and the Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) 25.0 to analyze the data collected information. The proposed models are expanded by additional construct factors to evaluate their influence on purchase intention. The results indicate that online second-hand clothing purchase intention (PI) is partially explained by the theory of planned behavior (TPB) with product attitude (PA) and individualism (IN). Among the additional factors encompassed, consumer perceived value (CPV) and consumer perceived risk (CPR) negatively impacted the consumer’s intention to buy second-hand clothing. Additionally, this study validates the effectiveness of the integrated model of TPB in interpreting customers’ buying intentions for second-hand clothing. This study also yielded theoretical and managerial implications, as well as proposals for further research.

Workplace stress and nurse retention are critical challenges in healthcare, affecting organizational stability and public health outcomes. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of stressors and job satisfaction on nurses’ turnover intentions in the western region of Ghana, with a focus on the moderating role of transformational leadership. Methodologically, a descriptive cross-sectional design was employed to collect data from 364 registered nurses working in four hospitals. Participants completed an online questionnaire measuring stress factors, job satisfaction, turnover intentions, and transformational leadership. Structural equation modelling was employed to analyze the data using Mplus 8.3. The results revealed stressors (stress from workload, superiors, and coworkers and daily life) significantly increased nurses’ turnover intentions while negatively influencing job satisfaction. Job satisfaction was inversely associated with turnover intentions, and transformational leadership moderated this relationship, reducing the likelihood of such intentions. The findings highlight the importance of fostering job satisfaction and implementing transformational leadership strategies, such as mentorship and effective stress management, to alleviate workplace stress and enhance nurse retention. These insights offer valuable guidance for hospital administrators and policymakers in designing interventions to improve nurse retention and overall organizational performance.

This paper explores the relationship between environmental, social, and governance performance (ESGP) and firm value in both emerging and developed economies, with the moderating impact of environmental uncertainty and competitive advantage. Using secondary unbalanced data spanning from 2011 to 2022, we examine both the direct and non-linear effects of ESG performance on firm value, employing advanced econometric estimation techniques such as two-step system GMM (2sGMM) and two-stage least square (2SLS). The analysis finds that: (1) ESG performance positively influences firm value in both Chinese and US banks, and the results remain valid after robustness test; (2) The results also confirm that ESG performance non-linearly influence firm value across the samples, with an inverted U-shape relationship; (3) Additionally, we further investigate the moderating effects of environmental uncertainty and competitive advantage, uncovering that environmental uncertainty dampens the ESGP-firm value relationship, while competitive advantage further amplifies it. This study contributes to the understanding of how ESG performance can act as strategic assets that align managerial and stakeholder interests, and improve firm performance, by underpinning agency, stakeholder, and the resource-based view theory. Practical insights are also provided for policymakers, regulators, and financial institutions regarding the use of ESGP as a competitive tool in uncertain and dynamic market environments.

Afghanistan and most developing, landlocked countries must prioritize regional diplomacy and make strategic alliances to eliminate economic difficulties and create opportunities for trade, partnerships, and markets that will encourage further integration. This research aims to identify workable value chains for integration under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and evaluate their suitability by considering their potential volume. This research investigates how BRI is decreasing trade restrictions and increasing connectivity through the use of quantitative techniques and a survey research approach. The research results demonstrate that BRI can have a major impact on Afghanistan's economic situation, particularly with trade volume, trade restrictions, diplomacy, negotiations, and implementation of such kinds of projects. The Initiative has the potential to significantly reduce trade restrictions, and challenges, and enhance trade connectivity by utilizing significant infrastructure investments and investment in Afghanistan. However, security risks and political concerns prevent the BRI from achieving maximum connectivity in this country. This study contributes to thoughtful strategic alliances such as BRI can facilitate Afghanistan's trade connectivity, sustainable development, and economic integration by giving stakeholders and policymakers useful data to accomplish opportunities and know obstacles.

This paper investigates the asymmetric exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) to inflation in Nigeria. The study employed Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and Nonlinear ARDL (NARDL) models from 2010Q1 to 2024Q2. The analysis incorporates key policy changes, such as the 2023 exchange rate unification, and explores both the short- and long-run impacts of exchange rate fluctuations on food and headline inflation. In particular, the study highlights the response and pass-through periods of exchange rate shocks, with depreciation demonstrating a stronger and more immediate effect on inflation than on appreciation. Results reveal that exchange rate depreciation exerts significant cost-push pressures, with a pass-through effect observed within 3 to 4 quarters, while the effect of appreciation is weaker and more prolonged. This asymmetry is especially pronounced for food inflation, where the dependency on imported goods accelerates the transmission of exchange rate shocks to consumer prices. The study also finds that cumulative depreciation has a much more pronounced effect on inflation. At the same time, appreciation offers minimal relief, reflecting Nigeria’s vulnerability to exchange rate volatility due to its reliance on imports. The findings show the importance of managing exchange rate fluctuations to control inflation, particularly given the asymmetry in how depreciation and appreciation affect prices. By providing a comprehensive analysis of both long- and short-run dynamics, this study contributes to the understanding of ERPT in Nigeria, offering insights for policymakers to implement targeted interventions to mitigate inflationary pressures in the context of exchange rate instability.

The main purpose of the study is to shed light on how the Belt and Road Initiative, Foreign Direct Investment, and Regional Cooperation affect Afghanistan's Trade Balance. In research, we used a mixed-methods approach to thoroughly investigate the relationships among distinct variables. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and reliability analysis were carried out using SPSS and AMOS was utilized in the research to validate the data and establish a measurement model, for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The study found that integration with BRI has a significant impact on Afghanistan’s trade balance (M = 3.925, SD = 1.048), with effective regional cooperation Afghanistan can enhance trade, ease barriers, and promote cooperation with neighboring countries (M = 4.017, SD = 1.095). Trade Balance (M = 3.938, SD = 1.112), Also, the importance of attracting FDI is to boost exports and reduce dependence on imports and it is necessary to implement policies for sustainable development (M = 3.983, SD = 1.096). To promote trade, and cooperation and ensure prosperity in the region, the governments can utilize strategic cooperation and create investment opportunities. In conclusion, the study found the importance of cooperation, strategies, and attracting FDI to address both trade facilitation and promote investment for a positive impact on trade balance and influence development.

Using A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2010 to 2019 and the density of Confucian temples and schools near sample company headquarters, this paper uses regression analysis to estimate the impact of Confucian culture on corporate environmental governance.  Enterprise environmental capital investment as a percent of total assets is the dependent variable used as a proxy for environmental governance. The log of the number of the number of Confucian temples and Confucian academies within a 200-kilometer radius of the company's registered location plus one is the independent variable. This study finds that the environmental capital expenditures increase by 0.007% for every unit increase in the independent variable. Similar results are found when the radius is expanded to 300 kilometers. The greater the influence of Confucian culture is, the more inclined enterprises are to participate in corporate environmental governance. Additionally, environmental governance information disclosure can be a key influence path for this correlation.  Further analysis finds that the relationship between Confucian culture and environmental governance is stronger with more experienced managers, a more developed institutional environment, and after 2015 following the People's Republic of China’s enactment of the Environmental Protection Law.  This study expands the literature on the factors that influence Confucian culture on corporate environmental governance, enriches the empirical evidence of the influence of the informal system of corporate environmental governance on enterprise decision-making, and confirms the modern commercial value of Confucian culture. 

Green human resource management, or GHRM, is a relatively new idea but is already thought to be an essential tool for fostering sustainable behavior in businesses. We intended to find out how GHRM affects worker pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) by using worker engagement (WENG) and the green psychological climate (GPC) as mediators. The study tested and analyzed the suggested model using the PLS-SEM technique via SmartPLS 4. To gather data from 324 valid respondents—HR managers and employees—we used a quantitative study approach. These participants were chosen randomly from three industrial parks in Afghanistan. The analysis's findings demonstrated that GHRM possessed a positive impact on employees' PEBs. Furthermore, the employees' pro-environmental behaviors PEBs are fostered by the green psychological climate GPC and worker engagement WENG. The study presents new findings indicating that, in the Afghanistan industrial context, GHRM both directly and indirectly affects employees' PEBs through the partially mediating effects of GPC and WENG. The present research is significant because it fills in the gaps in the literature and offers new perspectives on GHRM. Notably, there aren't many GHRM studies that focus on Afghanistan's industrial sector. Furthermore, in analyzing these connections and evaluating the mediation effects, this study contributes to the body of knowledge currently available on PEBs.  Additionally, this study makes a practical contribution to the industrial sector by offering guidance on how to improve managers' understanding of GHRM policies, enhance employee PEBs at work, and foster an environmentally friendly organizational culture.

Green human resource management practices are widely accepted and are essential for encouraging sustainable behavior in organizations. We aimed to ascertain the relationship between employees' eco-friendly behavior and Green HRM practices by employing environmental awareness as a mediator. we analyzed and tested the suggested model Employing the PLS-SEM method through SmartPLS 4. The current study employed a quantitative research approach to collect data from 346 actual respondents. From six major public universities in Afghanistan, these participants were selected randomly. Based on the investigation, it was shown that green recruitment and selection, green training and development, green performance management, and green reward and compensation possessed a positive impact on employees' eco-friendly behavior.  Additionally, environmental awareness promotes eco-friendly conduct among the staff. The research provides updated outcomes showing that, through the partially moderating impacts of environmental awareness, green HRM practices in Afghanistan's public universities both directly and indirectly influence employees' eco-friendly behavior. The current study is noteworthy since it provides fresh insights into green HRM. Additionally, by examining these relationships and assessing the mediation effects, this work adds to the amount of literature already accessible on environmentally friendly behaviors.  Furthermore, current research makes a practical contribution to public universities by suggesting guidelines on how to increase academicians' awareness of green HRM practices, enhance eco-friendly behavior at work, and develop environmentally friendly behavior.

This study investigates the effectiveness of Presidential Directives in comparison to the traditional policy process in Botswana. More precisely, the study determines whether the use of Presidential Directives is a more efficient and effective means of achieving policy outputs, as compared to the traditional policy process. To achieve this, the study conducted a comprehensive analysis of policies and Presidential Directives in Botswana, examining the processes through which they were formulated, implemented, and evaluated. The methodological approach adopted includes an intrepretivist research paradigm as well as a qualitative research approach for both data collection and analysis. Results reveals that Presidential directives achieve outputs faster and more effectively than the traditional policy process, Presidential Directives may have some advantages in terms of speed and flexibility, but they are not necessarily more effective than the traditional policy process in achieving their planned outcomes, policy process, which involves stakeholder consultation, evidence-based decision-making and comprehensive analysis of the policy context, is a more reliable and effective means of policy-making in the long term. However, the study also found that there are some areas where Presidential Directives may be more appropriate, such as in emergency situations or when quick decisions are required. Overall, this research provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of different approaches to policy-making in Botswana, and its findings have important implications for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers in the field of public policy. The study recommends transparency and accountability; stakeholder engagement; evidence-based policy-making and comprehensive policy evaluation.

The financial performance of banks relies heavily on properly utilizing their capital. However, bank ownership can have varying effects on the relationship between financial performance and capital. This study delves into this relationship by examining the impact of ownership on financial performance and bank capital. The study analyzes data from 44 commercial banks in Bangladesh and uses a two-step system generalized method of moments to address heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation issues. Unlike previous studies, this study confirms the significant effect of ownership on the relationship between bank financial performance and bank capital. The study's main findings are: (1) an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between bank capital and financial performance, implying that increasing capital can improve and reduce financial performance. (2) Private and Islamic commercial banks perform better than state-owned and conventional banks. (3) private-owned and Islamic commercial banks with higher capital are more likely to achieve higher profitability and financial success, while state-owned and conventional commercial banks with higher capital show lower profitability and weaker financial performance. Overall, this study offers significant practical implications for academics, researchers, and regulators interested in leveraging these findings.

The relationship between green human resource management (GHRM) and environmental performance (EP) has received little attention in the past, despite the hotel management discipline's mediation analysis being one of the areas examined.  To fill this research gap, the study expands upon the Ability-Motivation-Opportunity (AMO) and social identity theory (SIT). It also goes beyond what has already been written by examining the relationship between environmental performance and green human resource management by examining the roles of Employee Green Commitment (EGC) and Organizational Citizenship Behavior towards the Environment (OCBE). According to a survey conducted on 273 hotel employees, it has been found that GHRM plays a positive and significant role in promoting Organizational Citizenship Behavior towards the Environment (OCBE), Employee Green Commitment (EGC), and environmental performance (EP) of hotels. Additionally, implementing green human resource management can have a considerable and favorable influence on both environmental performance and employees' commitment to eco-friendliness. It was observed that organizational citizenship behavior toward the environment and employee green commitment play a significant role in mediating the relationship between Green human resource management and hotel environmental performance. The data from the survey were analyzed using Smart-PLS 4 which involved conducting validity and reliability tests on the instruments and testing the hypothesized relationships using SEM analysis. Based on this report, it is recommended that HR managers and hotel top management develop green HRM policies to promote sustainability in the hospitality industry.

While studying the adoption of mobile banking, its antecedents must be considered to have a better understanding and complete picture of the factors affecting the adoption of mobile banking. There is a scarcity of studies about the effect of the (Rogers, 1995, 2003) five attributes of innovation on the adoption of mobile banking. So, this paper examined the effect of relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability on the adoption of mobile banking in Egypt. The study hypotheses were tested using primary data collected online. The results show that relative advantage, compatibility, and observability have a significant positive impact on the adoption of mobile banking. On the other hand, the effect of complexity and trialability on the adoption of mobile banking was negative but nonsignificant.

Technological advancements in automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and robotics have completely changed the service industries, including the hospitality sector. This study aims to investigate the fundamental elements that impact the acceptance (or rejection) of artificial intelligence assistants' services. This research employed semi-structured interviews to gather insights from both individuals who use AI services in hotels and those who do not. Based on Behavioral Reasoning Theory, this study is empirically tested by interviews with intended respondents. This study examines the "reasons for" and "reasons against" using AI assistant services in the hotel. Technology anxiety, privacy concern, prior experience, and task complexity are "reasons against," while performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, humanness, social presence, perceived interaction enjoyment, cuteness, and trust are "reasons for." This study found that "reasons against" negatively affect attitude and adoption intention, while "reasons for" positively affect them. Behavioral Reasoning Theory is used for the first time to evaluate Bangladeshi hotel consumers' AI service assistant adoption intentions. As a new technology, AI assistants provide a better understanding of user usage. Furthermore, this study offers essential facts regarding the utilization of technology in the hospitality sector.

This study investigates the relationship between board nationality diversity (BND) and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) in developing countries. It also highlights the role of legitimacy concerns in investigating how foreign ownership moderates the connection between BND and ESG due to the increased liability of foreignness. Using a sample of listed firms in Johannesburg stock exchange (JSE) in South Africa over 2015–2020, our two-step system GMM findings show that board nationality diversity positively affects ESG. Moreover, our study found that foreign ownership strengthens the positive connection between BND and ESG. Our study contributes to the literature by highlighting the importance of legitimacy theory in the dynamic nexus between BND and ESG. The findings of this study have substantial implications for firms, investors, and stakeholders.

This article analyzes the status quo and cooperation mechanism between ASEAN and China, mainly, the non-traditional security issues in the South China Sea space (SCS). The non-traditional security threats confronting the SCS are complex, diverse and enormous. Amongst those are transnational maritime crimes, marine disaster threat, marine ecological environmental threat, and resource scarcity. Recent trends have demonstrated that the established regimes between ASEAN and China, for non-traditional security cooperation in the SCS, are fragmented mainly due to the absence of integrated and long-term mechanisms. Three reasons hinder the acceleration of the cooperation process: interference from outside powers, insufficient mutual political trust between China and ASEAN members, claimants and divergence of interests in advancing the Code of Conduct (COC) in the SCS. This article aims to analyze the problems and the causes existing between China and ASEAN in dealing with non-traditional security cooperation. It also examines the effectiveness of the rules-based cooperation mechanisms and offers a few recommendations. It is argued that ASEAN and China should take advantage of the low sensitivity of non-traditional security issues and high-quality development of the One Belt and One Road Initiative, to construct an integrated framework based on rules jointly and order for multilateral non-traditional security cooperation in the SCS. Three possible and workable measures are recommended to facilitate non-traditional security cooperation between ASEAN and China in the SCS. Both sides, primarily ASEAN member claimants, pursue an excellent willingness to cooperate and could promote functional cooperation, promote successful maritime cooperation modes as long-term cooperation mechanisms in the SCS, focus on strengthening the capacity-building of marine governance, and comprehensively establish a multilateral cooperation mechanism in marine environmental protection and fishery resources management.

The African farming sector suffers from insufficient finance. Climate changes and socio-political issues hold down the required production level while food on the continent is still inadequate, with more vulnerable people on the one side. On the other side, credit institutions need reasons and guarantees to raise their risk-taking level (financial benefits). Then, this study tries to conciliate those two sides with new shreds of evidence by demonstrating the short and long-run effects of agricultural production on bank sustainability in 40 Sub-Saharan African countries. The study used different agro-production factors (Food and Cereal production factors), bank stability proxies (Liquidity Ratio, NPLs, LLRs), and bank profitability proxies (ROA and ROE). The GMM, DFE, and FMOLS models were used for short (with the 2010-2019 dataset) and long-run analysis (with the 1970-2018 dataset). The results demonstrated that agricultural production increases bank stability and profitability but reduces bank risks. The study concludes that farming finance increases agro-production and stabilizes banks (win-win). Governments, via central banks, should encourage commercial banks to increase bank risk-taking levels to sustain their banking system, increase farming production, and improve food security.

This study explains the modes of intergenerational succession by female successors in Chinese family businesses and the selection mechanism. In view of the family businesses to which females (daughters) belong, this paper proposes five types of intergenerational succession modes of family businesses, namely the kindred-based succession by the daughter, kindred-based succession by others, joint succession by the daughter and her siblings, joint succession by the daughter and her husband (son-in-law), and succession by a professional manager. By means of case analysis, this study also explores the driving forces for choosing a proper model from the above five succession modes, including family structure, the father’s and business owner’s attitudes, and the daughter’s attitude toward succession, etc. This paper contributes to the domain of the intergenerational succession mode by ‘female (daughter) successors’ in Chinese family-owned businesses theoretically and practically.