Sania Sabaa, Saptaningsih Sumarmi, Basma Al-Hariry
et al.
This study examines the impact of gamification in marketing and artificial intelligence (AI) stimuli on customer engagement, with customer ability readiness as a moderating factor in the Saudi telecommunications sector. Using the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) model, this research investigates how AI-driven personalization and gamification strategies influence customer interactions, motivation, and loyalty. A quantitative research approach was employed, utilizing Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to analyze survey responses from 400 Saudi telecom users. The results confirm that gamification and AI stimuli positively influence customer engagement, with customer ability readiness significantly moderating these relationships. Consumers with higher technological proficiency are more likely to benefit from AI-driven and gamified experiences, while those with lower readiness may struggle to engage effectively. These findings highlight the importance of designing adaptive and inclusive marketing strategies tailored to different levels of digital proficiency. This study contributes to the theoretical literature by expanding the SOR model to include customer ability readiness as a moderating factor. It also provides practical insights for marketers in the Saudi telecom industry, emphasizing the need for personalized, user-friendly AI and gamification strategies. The findings align with Saudi Vision 2030’s goals of digital transformation and customer-centric innovation, offering valuable implications for businesses seeking to enhance customer engagement.
Business ethics, Social responsibility of business
This study investigates the relationships between strategic green marketing orientation (SGMO), green innovation, and marketing performance within the manufacturing sector in Saudi Arabia. Employing a cross-sectional research design, data was collected from mid-level employees in the marketing departments of manufacturing firms. A total of 357 responses were gathered using a structured questionnaire, which measured the three key constructs using validated scales adapted from prior studies. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to analyze the data, enabling the examination of both direct and indirect relationships among the variables. Results revealed that SGMO has a strong positive effect on green innovation, which in turn significantly enhances marketing performance. Additionally, green innovation was found to mediate the relationship between SGMO and marketing performance, highlighting its pivotal role in translating green marketing strategies into improved market outcomes. The study underscores the importance of integrating environmental concerns into marketing strategies and fostering green innovation to achieve sustainable business success. These findings offer valuable insights for managers and policymakers in the manufacturing sector, emphasizing the need to align green marketing practices with innovation to drive both environmental and economic benefits.
Business ethics, Social responsibility of business
En marzo de 2020, ante la llegada de la COVID-19, España decretó uno de los confinamientos más estrictos de Occidente. Esta medida sanitaria tan extrema plantea un conflicto ético de valores que se traslada, en lo político, a los derechos fundamentales y, en última instancia, a los derechos humanos. En este artículo se repasan los derechos afectados y se analiza el confinamiento impuesto por España e imitado luego por los países latinoamericanos, con el prisma de los principios éticos relativos a la contención de epidemias. El confinamiento fue una intervención inédita, que no estaba probada y cuya eficacia era desconocida; conllevó una vulneración grave de los derechos civiles sin justificación científica y sin verdaderos resultados epidemiológicos. Evitar el mismo error en futuras pandemias depende en parte de un escrupuloso respeto por los principios éticos que ya están recogidos en la legislación vigente.
Medical philosophy. Medical ethics, Business ethics
The article aims to assess the effectiveness of financial expenditures in higher education for 31 provinces in China, namely overall, technical and scale efficiency, and to determine whether the returns to scale are increasing or decreasing for each province. The main method used is the three-stage DEA analysis / Data Envelopment Analysis, and software DEAP2.1 and Frontier 4.1 are used for modelling. Financial expenditures on higher education form an input parameter in the DEA model. The output parameters (determining the efficiency of higher education) are the number of students, the number of full-time teachers and the new value added to fixed assets in higher education institutions. The modelling was carried out for 2008-2013 and 2014-2018 (the COVID-19 pandemic is not considered to avoid uncommon trends and unpredictable disturbances in the model). A comparison of the analysis results for these periods allowed the identification of new trends and patterns. The study takes into account three main groups of parameters: 1) endogenous (inefficiency of internal management processes); 2) exogenous (gross regional product per capita of each province in China; the extent of university clustering, which is determined by political and market decisions and does not depend on educational institutions; and the degree of fiscal decentralisation, which is estimated in the article as the ratio of local and state budget expenditures per capita, taking into account the distribution of total budget expenditures for each district and the total population of the respective territory); 3) random disturbances. At the first stage of the study, a BCC model focused on inputs (to assess the technical efficiency of financial expenditures on higher education in different provinces) was built. It does not consider exogenous factors and random disturbances. In the second stage, SFA (stochastic frontier analysis) was applied to account for the impact of all three groups of factors (endogenous, exogenous and statistical noise) on the efficiency of financial expenditures in higher education for each province in China. In the third stage, the adjusted and standardised input and output parameters are incorporated into the BCC models, and the actual value of efficiency caused by exogenous parameters and the influence of random factors is determined. A comparison of the results of each modelling stage for each stage in the study and each province in China allowed the establishment of how the influence of the determinants of higher education financing efficiency changed in chronological and spatial contexts.
Ramon Cases Solé, Giorgia Sebastiani, David Varillas-Delgado
et al.
El objetivo del presente artículo es realizar una aproximación a la situación de la osteopatía pediátrica en España y proponer la creación de una mesa de diálogo inter y multidisciplinar que permita avanzar en su regulación y ordenación profesional. Actualmente no existe un estándar académico que regule este tipo de formación en nuestro país. La ausencia de regulación predispone a que haya una gran variedad de perfiles profesionales, con formaciones académicas dispares, practicando la osteopatía. Este hecho puede tener implicaciones sobre la seguridad y calidad de la atención que reciben los/las pacientes/usuarios/as, principalmente los grupos vulnerables y dependientes de la población, como son los/las menores de edad. La creación de una mesa de diálogo también permitiría clarificar la práctica profesional de la osteopatía pediátrica y cuál es su bien interno para con la sociedad española. El papel de la bioética puede ser importante a la hora de integrar diferentes voces.
Medical philosophy. Medical ethics, Business ethics
Abstract We investigate the circumstances under which socially responsible investing (SRI) enhances firm long-term financial performance, and therefore provides incentives for firms to self-regulate their environmental performance. Aggregating portfolios across SRI mutual funds, we estimate the effect of SRI investment with environmental screening criteria on firm cost of equity capital. We find that accounting for interactions between firm and non-shareholder stakeholders, and potential agency costs associated with certain environmental activities of the firm, SRI can facilitate the alignment of firms’ environmental and financial goals. We also find that an industry group’s environmental performance and diversity influence the extent to which a firm in that group can benefit from SRI investment.
Social responsibility of business, Business ethics
The concept of ethical consumption has garnered considerable attention in recent years. Yet, it remains somewhat ‘mystical’ in the existing Western literature. The present unique cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary study offers clarification on the conception of ethical consumption from three aspects: First, this paper reflects on the nature of the concept of ethical consumption and identifies its relatively large common core as an open-textured, ‘naturalistic’ concept; conceptualizing the ideal of ethical consumption in virtue ethical language. Second, this paper secures a firmer grounding for the concept of ‘ethical consumption’ within virtue ethics by linking it theoretically to a Confucian form of virtue ethics. We support this interpretation with empirical evidence, gleaned through focus-group discussions and individual interviews with consumers, undergoing fast-changing dynamics, from an urban-rural fringe from China: a culture already immersed in lay virtue ethical thinking, inspired by Confucius. Third, the paper brings the data back to theory by eliciting from the data a structural framework of the foci of the underlying virtues making up the virtue of ethical consumption, on our respondents’ understanding, and reflecting upon how this new theoretical understanding may advance the academic discourse on ethical consumption and expand the understandings of ethical consumption from a cross-cultural perspective. We explore notions such as virtue patriotism and filial piety that contribute to the diversity of the conception of ethical consumption. We explain how those virtues play a role in Chinese understandings of ethical consumption, contributing to the global diversity of the concept. This study does not claim to represent the complete truth about Chinese consumers’ views on ethical consumption, considering the geographic constraints and the small number of participants. However, it does offer some salient insights into Chinese consumers’ understanding of ethical consumption, which is grounded in their daily practices and reflects their consumer motivations; hence, enriching the global business ethics discourse on ethical consumption.
Environment is a very important thing to maintain and preserve. From the perspective of religion or ethics there is has been done. But in the development of human life, it seems that the impact of industrialization begin to cause various enviromental problems. Therefore, regulation that relating to the production in a business and/or activity are needed, one of which is EIA-Environmental Impact Assessment (in Indonesia usually called by Amdal). This study aims to describe the role of EIA for guarding bussiness ethics on the environtment. The method is use qualitative-decriptive-literature. Result from this study is the existence of “Kerangka Acuan,” “Andal,” and “RKL-RPL” in EIA documents can be an instrument for guarding this ethics, in other side there are contain a “mashlahah” to maintain and preserve the environment.
Accounting is one of the foundations of the business in modern world and an accountant is a specialist whose level of professionalism must be impeccable. Today in Ukraine there is a “crisis of confidence” in the profession of an accountant, caused primarily by violations of ethical standards by specialists and neglect of professional values. The problem is aggravated by the users of accounting services themselves, who try to influence the accountant, satisfying their interests at the expense of others. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the importance of compliance with the basic ethical principles of behavior by accountants in order to restore user confidence in accounting and reporting data, identify the reasons for violation of the code of ethics by accountants and determine the main directions of work of the professional community, the state and the accountants to eliminate the identified problems. It has been determined that compliance with the basic ethical principles by accountants contributes to: the formation of professional values and the development of a conceptual model of accountant behavior at all levels of education (secondary vocational, higher, additional education, advanced training); the implementation of the national code of ethics for professional accountants by adapting it to Ukrainian practice, internal codes of ethics of professional organizations or accounting services; the creating a mechanism for identifying unethical behavior of accountants and introducing an effective system of sanctions for violation of the code of ethics. However, the ways of solving the problems described in the article will give a positive result if the comprehensive work is carried out to ensure compliance with the norms of the code of ethics – from the professional community, the state and the accountants. Most efforts will be fruitless until users of accounting services – employers and clients, as well as the public – begin to place real demands on the ethical behavior of accountants.
Community pharmacies are expanding their role into medicines-related healthcare and public health services, previously the domain of physicians and nurses, driven by policies to improve healthcare access for patients and to address problems of increasing demands and rising costs in primary and urgent care services. Understanding the organisational context into which this expansion is taking place is necessary given concerns over the extent to which pharmacies prioritise service volume over the quality of service provision. As part of a larger programme of work, this paper aims to explore stakeholder perceptions of the organisational and extra-organisational factors associated with service quality and quantity in community pharmacy as an established exemplar of private sector organisations providing publicly-funded healthcare. With ethics committee approval, forty semi-structured interviews were conducted with service commissioners, superintendent and front-line pharmacists, purposively selected from across nine geographical areas and a range of community pharmacy organisational types in England. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed. Findings highlight the perceived importance of appropriate staffing and skill-mix for promoting service quantity and quality in community pharmacy. Organisational cultures which supported team development were viewed as facilitatory whereas those prioritising business targets over service quality seen to be inhibitive. Older local populations and low patient expectations were thought to limit service uptake as was poor integration with wider primary care services. The contractual framework and commissioning processes were also seen as a barrier to increasing service quality, quantity and integration in this sector. These findings suggest that healthcare administrations should take account of organisational and extra-organisational drivers and barriers when commissioning services from private sector providers such as community pharmacies to ensure that the quality of service provision is incentivised in addition to service quantity. Additionally, collaborative working should be encouraged through integrated commissioning mechanisms.
In the era of globalization and technological advances, the development of creative economy is moving rapidly and offering much more different career for economic actors. But, this development of creative economy has some problems. The examples are the fluctuation of cash flow on the creative economy business actors and wealth authority which belong to intangible assets. Thus, it is difficult to determine the average price of a work from creative economic actors. According to the library researches, found the thing sthat can solve the problem of a work standardization price for creative economy
business actors. The creative economy business actors can be called as freelancer. They can make appraisal program under protection of professional association as policy maker and law protector to protect the value of a work from creative economy business actors.
Deception varies across individuals and social contexts. The present research explored how individual difference measured by social value orientations, and situations, affect deception in moral hypocrisy. In two experiments, participants made allocations between themselves and recipients with an opportunity to deceive recipients where recipients cannot reject their allocations. Experiment 1 demonstrated that proselfs were more deceptive and hypocritical than prosocials by lying to be apparently fair, especially when deception was unrevealed. Experiment 2 showed that proselfs were more concerned about social image in deception in moral hypocrisy than prosocials were. They decreased apparent fairness when deception was revealed and evaluated by a third-party reviewer and increased it when deception was evaluated but unrevealed. These results show that prosocials and proselfs differed in pursuing deception and moral hypocrisy social goals and provide implications for decreasing deception and moral hypocrisy.
Now, there are processes of formation of a knowledge society – the Smart-society – are all the new features, which are characterized by obtaining a new effect from the use of information and communication technologies. The development of computers and communications creates the preconditions for moving the place of work out of the office space in the digital home. In these circumstances, more and more importance is given to the individual skills of the person, its ability to absorb a huge amount of diverse information, generate and innovate. Therefore, empowerment process for every professional who wants to be popular, it becomes continuous, becomes a constant need to learn and lifelong learning. In addition, requirements for the employees are changing, and the person must evaluate its relevance to society. This raises the question: how to evaluate the relevance? What is necessary for the Smart-society?What to learn or re-learn? Focus shifts from classical training to personal development. Traditional methods and approaches to learning have stopped covering the needs of the knowledge. Instead of selecting a limited number of the templates, each person is faced with the necessity to configure your own unique personality, to increasingly use informal learning, providing the individual development.The professional competence of the person in the Smart-society is formed in an interactive learning environment, using content from around the world, which is in the public domain. The assessment level of competence, identifying the need for professional development, early learning with the use of technology, provided by the Smart-education, are essential components of the formation process of professional competence of the person in the Smart-society. It is important to provide the compliance of the business metrics of employees to the content of the assessment test at the stage of internal validation for the purpose of timely identification of those competences, it is necessary to increase their level, and certification testing for confirming the level of professional competence of employees, which dictates the ethics of the Economy and Smart-society.This problem causes the need to use the active and relevant content. In order to solve the global task it is necessary to promote development and to use open educational resources. Such active approaches to learning increasingly spread, as the creation of professional communities, the use of cloud computing, mobile communication development.In the context of the professional standards’ implementation, the person should be prepared for such a certification and not pass it by trial and error. The person has to have a possibility to check and to develop the competencies. «Professional communities» can provide such a possibility, in our opinion. Professional community portal – is an effective tool for creating of the high quality and relevant content that can be used for the continuous development of competencies and the employers can submit their claims. Monitoring of competencies, including the monitoring in the centers of the qualification independent assessment should be carried out with the use of adaptive testing algorithms and test tasks continuously updated to meet the changing needs of the Smart-society.
The actual global crisis, fueled by financial scandals and political instability, has allowed the development of some factors that might be attributed to some deficiencies in the field of professional ethics. The accountability professional must respect certain regulated rules and principles, but the continuous change in the modern business environment makes the accounting professional face numerous challenges. That is why it is important for each accounting professional to respect the ethic requirements each time, by avoiding or mitigating, and even foreseeing, in some cases, the risk of error making, and, thus, protecting the image of the accounting entity.
The article seeks to clarify the concept of vulnerability, by taking structural and epochal frailty into account. To understand the right to health care, the author reflects about the fundamental goods, and he then examines how that same right is present in the Portuguese and the Spanish constitutions. The association between vulnerability and the law is also tackled, with a special reference –in dialogue with Herbert Hart– to its fundamental level and to other links between both terms in the field of health. The article closes with a few remarks on posthumanist attempts at saying goodbye to human frailty.
Medical philosophy. Medical ethics, Business ethics
This paper examines the limitations and biases of world university rankings and asks what drivers explain their ongoing proliferation and popularity. It is argued that rankings are having a corrosive effect on higher education systems, institutions and staff by encouraging policy reforms at the governmental level and a reallocation of resources at the institutional level that may improve standings in the rankings but do not necessarily enhance quality research and teaching. Global rankings are linked to the rise of an international market in higher education, particularly with respect to international students. The author argues that what is at stake in the debate over university rankings is fundamentally whether higher education is to be thought of as having intrinsic value, or whether it is defined narrowly in instrumentalist and consumerist terms.