Enhancing supply chain resilience in SMEs: the role of business and political ties

PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has created disruptions across the supply chain that are beyond the resources of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to effectively deal with. This study aims to examine the idea that top managers' business and political ties can play direct roles in enhancing SCR in SMEs during COVID-19 by providing access to valuable resources. The study further investigates integrative capability as an underlying mechanism through which the effects of business and political ties can be transformed into enhanced SCR.Design/methodology/approachResponses from 217 SMEs in the country of Jordan were received via an online survey. The measurement and structural models were tested using the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique.FindingsThe study found that business and political ties are positively related to SCR. However, integrative capability fully mediates the relationship between business ties and SCR, whereas it partially mediates the relationship between political ties and SCR.Research limitations/implicationsThe study examined only the direct and indirect impacts of business and political ties on SCR. It could be extended by exploring the conditions under which they influence SCR.Originality/valueThe study explicates the role of top managers' business and political ties on improving SCR in a developing country context. It further examines the mediating role of integrative capability in the relationships between business and political ties and SCR.

The Impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic on Education: A Model Toward Technology-Supported Synchronous Remote Learning

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many universities have moved a large portion of their classes online. To better support students' online learning activities and to best resemble the face-to-face setting, the technology-supported, synchronous remote learning platform was adopted in most cases. In this study, the authors aim to investigate factors that could influence students' learning in this new environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, a research model was developed and tested with 428 students. The result showed that students' IT competence had a significant impact on their learning satisfaction, while social influence had a significant impact on their intention to use the remote learning technology in future classes. As to technology-facilitating conditions, significant impacts were found from it (at both institution and student levels) to learning satisfaction. They also found that COVID-19-related mental impacts could influence student satisfaction on and intention to use the remote learning technology.

The Inequity of Informal Guidance

The coexistence of formal and informal law is a hallmark feature of the U.S. tax system. Congress and the Treasury enact formal law, such as statutes and regulations, while the Internal Revenue Service offers the public informal explanations and summaries, such as taxpayer publications, website frequently asked questions, virtual assistants, and other types of taxpayer guidance. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the IRS increased its use of informal law to help taxpayers understand complex emergency relief rules implemented through the tax system. In contrast to many other legal scholars who have examined important administrative law issues regarding informal tax guidance, in this Article, we reframe the topic as a social justice issue. We argue that the two tiers of formal and informal law in the U.S. tax system systematically disadvantage taxpayers who lack access to sophisticated advisors. This imbalance occurs irrespective of whether the IRS's informal law contains statements that, if taxpayers followed them, would be taxpayer favorable or unfavorable. When the guidance contains taxpayer-favorable positions, the IRS is not legally bound by these positions and, during an audit, can contradict or ignore them. But when the guidance contains taxpayer-unfriendly positions, taxpayers who rely on them are bound to these interpretations as a practical matter. Worse yet, these taxpayers have almost no protection against tax penalties for incorrect positions that they claim based on the IRS's tax guidance. By contrast, taxpayers who can access and apply the formal sources of tax law, such as the Internal Revenue Code and Treasury Regulations, often through lawyers, are in a significantly better strategic position. They can rely on binding law, they can try to take the most advantageous positions possible, and, if they meet a relatively low bar of reasonableness, they will have penalty protections in doing so. After highlighting the growing gap between formal and informal tax law, and the resulting systemic inequity it causes, we explore potential policy approaches to address it. We consider reforming the drafting of the formal tax law;changing the drafting of informal tax law to include warnings to taxpayers and cross-references to formal tax law;revising the law regarding taxpayer reliance on informal tax law;and developing IRS research on how reliance on informal tax law varies based on taxpayers' income, filing status, race, and other personal characteristics.

Low-income consumers' disposition to use automated banking services

Automated banking services rely on the so-called fintech technologies. These technologies, however, represent an opportunity to enhance financial inclusion indicators among low-income customers. This paper aims to develop a new conceptual framework to analyse low-income consumers' disposition to use automated banking services. The work consists of an omnibus study conducted in eight major cities of Colombia. A survey aiming to measure the disposition to use automated banking services as a function of technology disposition provided by bank firms was developed and validated with a sample of 483 Colombian low-income residents. An exploratory analysis was applied, estimating items variance and covariance matrices. Sampling adequacy and assumption evaluation were evaluated through the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test, Tau-equivalence test, and homogeneous items test. Robust parameters were estimated via Structural Equation Modelling following the standards of reproducible research. Statistical, robust, and significant relationships between technology disposition and use of automated banking services in low-income Colombian consumers were confirmed, suggesting the potential success of deploying these services as a means to boost financial inclusion in this segment. This study provides fresh conceptual insights on low-income customers' disposition to adopt and use ever-changing technologies for the financial and banking sector. It is among the first empirical studies that provide empirical evidence that breaks the stereotype that low-income customers are reluctant to use new technologies in the financial sector.

The impact of internal factors on the use of technology in higher education in Saudi Arabia during the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND: Technology has recently become a major component of the educational field and learning process for it provides students with opportunities to learn more effectively and to operate efficiently in this age of technological advances. As academics, the use of technology in universities is transforming our work, and more specifically the way we support students in the classroom. As higher education institutions bring more technology into their classrooms, academics will in turn strive to put more technology in their students' hands. That is, if they are prepared to do so. More importantly, ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in this ongoing COVID-19 pandemic becomes a central and integral focus globally regardless one is associated with college or university. OBJECTIVE: This paper therefore attempts to examine the internal factors that should be taken into consideration when using technology for teaching and learning purposes in higher education in Saudi Arabia. METHODS: The study develops a number of hypotheses and a theoretical framework based on a questionnaire conducted among the faculty staff in Hail university to test the study hypotheses. RESULTS: All the study six hypotheses have been supported. The relationship among these hypotheses are clear and significant. Data analysis of this study have shown that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, computer self-efficacy, attitudes and computer anxiety have direct and substantial effect on the university teaching staff's intention to use technology. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study will for sure assist in overcoming the problems and difficulties facing the use of ICT in higher education in Saudi Arabia, particularly those challenges which have arisen amid the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.