Issue #4 (Volume 24 2026)

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
This study examines the relationships among green innovation, digital transformation, and export performance in Vietnamese exporting firms, with particular attention to the moderating role of digital transformation. Data were collected through a structured survey conducted between April and December 2025. The final sample comprised 292 valid firm-level responses, with one respondent representing each exporting firm. Respondents were managers, executives, or functional staff directly involved in export operations, production, logistics, or strategic decision-making. Ordinary least squares regression with an interaction term was employed to test the proposed relationships. When digital transformation was at its sample mean, green innovation was positively and significantly associated with export performance (B = 0.169, p < 0.001). Correspondingly, when green innovation was at its sample mean, digital transformation was positively and significantly associated with export performance (B = 0.235, p < 0.001). The interaction between green innovation and digital transformation was positive and statistically significant (B = 0.587, p < 0.001), indicating that the association between green innovation and export performance became more positive as digital transformation increased. Conditional-slope analysis revealed a crossover interaction: the relationship was negative at a selected lower level of digital transformation, positive at its sample mean, and substantially stronger at a selected higher level. The model explained 44.6% of the variance in export performance. These findings highlight the complementarity of green and digital capabilities and suggest that digital transformation is an important enabling condition for translating green innovation into stronger export-related outcomes in an emerging economy.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
Sharia banking institutions in Indonesia have significant growth potential, given that the majority of the population is Muslim. This study aims to analyze the association between organizational culture, innovation, and digital transformation within the context of resource-based strategic management in Sharia banks of East Java. Data were collected from state-owned (6 main and 90 branch offices) and private (3 main and 66 branch offices) Sharia banks in East Java during January and February 2026, after these Sharia banks completed their annual financial reports. A total of 165 respondents were selected using a purposive sampling method. The selected respondents were secretaries with at least three years of work experience. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling partial least squares (SEM-PLS). The analysis results show that organizational culture has a positive and significant relationship with resource-based strategic management (path coefficient = 0.450; t = 8.640; p < 0.001). Innovation also has a positive and significant relationship with resource-based strategic management (path coefficient = 0.305; t = 5.742; p < 0.001). Similarly, digital transformation has a positive and significant relationship with resource-based strategic management (path coefficient = 0.349; t = 6.183; p < 0.001). These findings indicate that organizational culture, innovation, and digital transformation are positively related to resource-based strategic management in Sharia banks of East Java.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
This study systematically reviews methodological approaches in tourism crisis management research, examining 374 peer-reviewed articles indexed in Scopus and published between 2007 and 2025. Following PRISMA guidelines, 411 records were identified through a structured Scopus search, and 37 were excluded during screening (15 not substantively addressing crisis management in tourism and 22 falling outside the 2007–2025 window), yielding a final sample of 374 articles. Each article was classified along two dimensions: crisis type (COVID-19/health, war/political/terrorism, natural disaster, financial/economic, or general) and research methodology (paradigm, specific methods, analytical techniques). Classification drew on titles, abstracts, and author keywords rather than full texts; findings should be interpreted accordingly. Because the search string required at least one methodology-related term, the corpus represents the methodology-signaling segment of the literature, and reported shares should be read within that scope. The findings reveal a corpus dominated by qualitative research (56.4% of articles), led by interviews (34.2%) and surveys (21.7%). COVID-19 and health-related crises account for 57.2% of the corpus, confirming a strong post-2020 concentration. Experimental designs appear in 0.8% of articles and longitudinal designs in 2.7%. In comparison, mixed methods research remains at 5.9%, indicating persistent gaps in designs best suited to causal inference and to tracking crises over time. The study contributes a five-category crisis typology, an evidence-based diagnostic of methodological strengths and gaps, and a research agenda for methodological diversification. Practically, stronger and more diverse methodologies improve the evidence base for tourism organizations, destination authorities, and public administrators making decisions under uncertainty.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
As economies become increasingly interconnected through digitalization while facing growing sustainability challenges, understanding the drivers of export competitiveness has become an important policy and research concern. This issue is particularly relevant in ASEAN, where digital infrastructure and renewable energy transition have progressed unevenly across member states. Despite growing interest in these transformations, their implications for export performance remain insufficiently understood. This study examines the relationships among digital infrastructure, the renewable energy transition, and export performance across eight ASEAN economies from 2010 to 2021. Using World Bank World Development Indicators data, a balanced panel of 96 country-year observations is analyzed through a fixed-effects model. Internet penetration and renewable energy consumption are specified as the main explanatory variables, while manufacturing value added and foreign direct investment are included as control variables. The results indicate that internet penetration, manufacturing value added, and foreign direct investment are positively and significantly associated with export performance, whereas renewable energy consumption exhibits a significant negative relationship. The estimated model explains approximately 63.5% of the within-country variation in export performance. These findings suggest that digital infrastructure, industrial capability, and foreign investment can strengthen export competitiveness. At the same time, the short-run effects of the renewable energy transition may reflect structural adjustment costs during the transformation process. The study contributes new evidence from ASEAN and highlights the importance of combining digital development with industrial upgrading and supportive policy frameworks to enhance long-term export performance.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and dedicated guidance throughout the review process.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
Healthcare reforms in transitional economies frequently prioritize administrative performance indicators; however, citizen evaluations often diverge significantly from these official metrics. To explore this discrepancy, this study investigates the extent to which reported healthcare improvements in Kazakhstan align with actual patient experiences, examining how geographic and socioeconomic factors shape the performance–perception gap. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, the paper integrates documentary analysis of policy materials (2019–2024), regional health statistics (2019–2023), and a nationwide stratified survey (n = 1,940) conducted across all 20 regions of Kazakhstan in 2024.
Results demonstrate a persistent, statistically significant divergence between official gains, such as increased life expectancy and infrastructure modernization, and public sentiment. Specifically, only 28.35% of respondents report high service quality (7.73% very high + 20.62% high), and just 28.7% express satisfaction levels above the neutral midpoint. Regression and ANOVA analyses confirm that disparities in access and affordability are systematically patterned by age, income, and urban-rural residence (p < 0.05). This gap is most pronounced in resource-constrained regions, where administrative progress in financing and digitalization has not translated into improved patient experiences. Further analysis identifies waiting times, transparency deficits, and perceived inequity as the primary drivers of this divergence. Based on these findings, the study concludes that existing evaluative methods are inadequate, suggesting that integrating standardized administrative metrics with regionally disaggregated citizen feedback is essential to align governance interventions with public expectations for the 2026 healthcare development horizon.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
Proactive work behavior is crucial for innovation and the quality of higher education; however, studies on social contextual factors remain limited. This study aims to examine the role of psychological empowerment as a mechanism linking contextual factors, such as coworker support and initiative-oriented team climate, to proactive work behavior among faculty members. Using a cross-sectional online survey, primary data were collected from May to July 2025 among 203 active faculty members at various universities in Indonesia (M = 40.42; 75.4% female) and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) via path analysis in Mplus. The initial saturated model indicated that coworker support (β = 0.072; p = 0.406) and initiative team climate (β = 0.060; p = 0.446) did not have a significant direct effect on proactive work behavior. The final parsimonious model (χ²/df = 1.254; p = 0.286; RMSEA = 0.035; CFI = 0.993; TLI = 0.982; SRMR = 0.042) indicates that psychological empowerment directly influences proactive work behavior (β = 0.498; p < 0.001). Moreover, psychological empowerment was found to be an “indirect-only” statistical mediator of the effect of coworker support (β = 0.113; p = 0.009) and initiative team climate (β = 0.091; p = 0.028) on proactive work behavior, with total variances (R-squared) of 13.1% and 24.8%, respectively. Ultimately, higher education institutions must design systems of coworker support and a collaborative team climate that foster psychological empowerment, as contextual resources will not lead to proactive actions unless faculty members feel psychologically empowered.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic caused the most severe demand shock in the global hotel industry's recorded history, but its financial consequences were not equally distributed across firms. This study aims to examine whether hotel business model structure, specifically the degree of asset-light orientation, predicts the timing of financial recovery. The analysis uses a 15-year (2010–2024) Bloomberg panel of publicly listed hotel companies. Business model scores are measured from Bloomberg segment revenue filings wherever segmentation separately identifies fee, property, and zero-margin reimbursement revenue, and by the structured classification otherwise, with treatment anchored at pre-crisis (2019) values. Two-way fixed effects difference-in-differences estimates show that asset-light companies outperformed asset-heavy peers by 13.5 percentage points in EBITDA margins during the 2020–2021 crisis (p = 0.014). The event study shows this advantage is concentrated in the recovery year rather than the shock year: both groups collapsed comparably in 2020, asset-light margins recovered to near pre-crisis levels in 2021 while asset-heavy margins remained negative (+20.3 pp, p < 0.001), and the differential is no longer distinguishable from zero by 2022. The recovery premium is robust to region-by-year and pre-crisis-size controls and, separately, to restricting the treated group to segment-verified firms.

Acknowledgment
The author gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Department of Economics, University of Zadar, which covered the article processing charge for this publication.

The Original Article was published on August 29, 2025

Corrigendum
Note. In the table, text highlighted in red indicates the erroneous (original) version, while text in green indicates the corrected version. The corrections concern the years only; all other wording, indicators and the structure of the text remain unchanged.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
Shifting municipal disability services from new public management efficiency frameworks to public value management collaborative networks is essential to align local governance with human rights standards. This study aims to examine how formal rules, administrative routines, and stakeholder participation arrangements associated with Universal Design and Public Value Management evolved in local governance. Examining the Vilnius City Municipality (1999–2025) through a longitudinal single-case design, this study adapts the sector awareness framework to analyze a multi-source qualitative corpus of 122 administrative documents and participant observations from 52 working group sessions. The empirical analysis maps a non-linear institutional transition across five distinct phases, revealing a structural shift from terminology-level denial (the official use of "invalid" until 2017) to public value management-oriented integration in non-physical domains (cultural funding criteria requiring easy language in 2024). The findings demonstrate that while universal design functions as a practical mechanism to operationalize public value management, its implementation remains fragmented and constrained by a rigid "tick-box" compliance culture that privileges physical infrastructure over informational and cognitive accessibility. Furthermore, co-creation is obstructed by deeply rooted power asymmetries that position non-governmental organizations as passive funding seekers rather than equal strategic partners with binding decision-making authority. Ultimately, the study shows that sustainable public value management implementation depends on relationship-oriented metrics, formalized power-sharing safeguards, and the institutionalization of permanent, cross-sectoral participatory channels.

Acknowledgment
The author would like to express sincere gratitude to Agota Giedrė Raišienė, doctoral research supervisor, for valuable guidance, constructive comments, and continuous support throughout the preparation of this article.
The author wishes to express their sincere gratitude to the Vilnius City Municipality for providing access to the administrative documents and the Legal Acts Portal. Special thanks are extended to the 22 members of the Universal Design Working Group for their participation and insights.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
Agrifood SMEs play a vital role in producing high-value-added processed products, enhancing the potential of local agricultural commodities, and supporting food availability and diversity. However, these SMEs face various challenges, including limited resources and capital, the need to adapt to rapid innovation and shifting consumer preferences, and volatile purchasing power amid economic fluctuations. This study aims to analyze the motivational factors influencing the adoption of frugal innovation among agrifood SMEs in Surakarta City, Indonesia. A quantitative method was employed, involving a sample of 150 agrifood SMEs in Surakarta. Data were collected through surveys and direct interviews between April and June 2025. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) with partial least squares (PLS) in SmartPLS 4. The majority of respondents’ businesses have been operating for less than 10 years and generate monthly revenue ranging from IDR 5,000,000 to IDR 40,000,000. The findings reveal that compatibility (ꞵ = 0.191, p < 0.05), low-cost manufacturing (ꞵ = 0.220, p < 0.05), digital platforms (ꞵ = 0.258, p < 0.05), sustainable leadership (ꞵ = 0.160, p < 0.05), technology turbulence (ꞵ = 0.188, p < 0.05), and external sources of knowledge (ꞵ = 0.172, p < 0.05) significantly encourage the adoption of frugal innovation. Moreover, external knowledge sources partially mediate the influence of sustainable leadership on the adoption of frugal innovation.

Acknowledgment
The authors are grateful to Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia, for funding this study with Contract No: 371/UN27.22/PT.01.03/2025.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
Understanding the factors associated with employee pro-environmental behavior is particularly important in manufacturing, where employees translate organizational sustainability objectives into everyday workplace practices. This study examines the relationships among green mindful leadership, green human resource management practices, employee green self-efficacy, and employee pro-environmental behavior. Data were collected through purposive and snowball sampling from 680 full-time employees of Vietnamese manufacturing firms and analyzed using PLS-SEM. The results show that green mindful leadership is positively associated with green competence-building practices (β = 0.253; p < 0.001), green motivation-enhancing practices (β = 0.279; p < 0.001), and green employee involvement practices (β = 0.187; p < 0.001). In turn, green competence-building practices (β = 0.249; p < 0.001), green motivation-enhancing practices (β = 0.294; p < 0.001), and green employee involvement practices (β = 0.170; p < 0.001) are positively associated with employee green self-efficacy, which is further associated with employee pro-environmental behavior (β = 0.314; p < 0.001). The three dimensions of green human resource management also show positive direct relationships with employee pro-environmental behavior, with green employee involvement practices demonstrating the strongest association (β = 0.353; p < 0.001), followed by green competence-building practices (β = 0.194; p < 0.001) and green motivation-enhancing practices (β = 0.096; p = 0.033). Sequential mediation analyses confirm significant indirect pathways from green mindful leadership to employee pro-environmental behavior through green competence-building practices and employee green self-efficacy (β = 0.020; p = 0.001), green employee involvement practices and employee green self-efficacy (β = 0.010; p = 0.012), and green motivation-enhancing practices and employee green self-efficacy (β = 0.026; p = 0.002). These results indicate that leadership-driven green human resource management systems are associated with stronger employee pro-environmental behavior when green organizational practices are coupled with greater employee confidence in their ability to perform environmentally responsible actions.

Acknowledgment
This research is funded by Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM) under grant number C2024-28-16.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
Internal marketing is widely discussed, but its assessment remains fragmented, particularly in higher education institutions. This study aims to identify relevant aspects of internal marketing in higher education institutions, develop an extended item set, and conduct an initial exploratory analysis. Data were collected in January–February 2026 from a convenience sample of 105 respondents from Lithuanian higher education institutions.
The initial set comprised 55 items: 42 covered employee-oriented domains derived from the 11-item internal marketing framework, and 13 addressed management support, internal procedures, and employee appraisal. Principal component analysis suggested a provisional six-component structure, and 33 items were retained in the provisional item set. The Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure was 0.903, Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant (p < 0.001), and the total explained variance was 73.94%. The overall internal consistency was high (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.965), although this value may also indicate possible item redundancy.
Given the small sample relative to the initial number of items, the convenience sampling strategy, and the incomplete analytical record of the item-reduction process, the findings should be interpreted as preliminary exploratory evidence rather than as validation of a measurement instrument. The proposed six-component structure should be regarded as unstable and sample-dependent and should be re-evaluated through exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis using substantially larger, independent samples. Potential differences among respondent groups were not examined. The results suggest that internal marketing in higher education institutions may encompass traditional employee-oriented aspects, management support, and procedural clarity.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
As the global workforce undergoes significant demographic change, organizations in Indonesia face increasing challenges in maintaining organizational commitment among Generation Z employees during shifting work values and high labor mobility. This study examines the effect of organizational culture on organizational commitment and investigates the mediating role of employee engagement. Based on job demands–resources theory and social exchange theory, a quantitative cross-sectional survey was conducted. Data were collected in 2025 through purposive sampling from 271 Generation Z employees working in organizations located in Jakarta, Indonesia. Data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) in SmartPLS using a two-stage approach for higher-order constructs. The findings show that organizational culture is strongly positively associated with employee engagement (β = 0.793; t = 34.590; p < 0.001), explaining 62.9% of the variance in engagement (R2 = 0.629). Employee engagement significantly affects organizational commitment (β = 0.524; t = 4.847; p < 0.001) and demonstrates a significant indirect mediating role in the relationship between organizational culture and organizational commitment (β = 0.416; t = 4.685; p < 0.001). However, the direct association between organizational culture and organizational commitment is not statistically significant (β = 0.168; p = 0.092). These results suggest that organizational commitment is shaped mainly by engagement experiences rather than by organizational culture alone, highlighting engagement as an important instrument for sustaining workplace bonds.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
This study examines how survey-based endorsement of inclusive principles can be measured when highly approved items produce ceiling effects. It develops a compact formative instrument covering equal starting opportunities, civic interethnic inclusion, universal application of law, and social guarantees. The analysis uses unweighted data from a nationwide descriptive survey sample of 3,123 adults in Kazakhstan, collected through computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) from May 10 to June 5, 2025, across 17 regions and the three cities of republican significance with territorial stratification and quota controls. Soft endorsement reaches 95.4% for equal opportunities and 94.1% for civic interethnic inclusion, while 62.7% rate both core principles as mandatory. Four profiles distinguish dual mandatory, equal-opportunity-only, interethnic-inclusion-only, and no mandatory endorsement. Group differences are small, and the indices show weak but consistent positive associations with perceived institutional and socioeconomic cleavages. The instrument provides a compact baseline for monitoring the intensity and cross-domain consistency of normative endorsement. It measures declarative legitimating standards, not realized inclusion, discrimination, institutional effectiveness, or policy performance.

Acknowledgments
This research was funded by the Committee of Science of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan under Scientific Program No. BR24993150, “Organisation of Psychological and Pedagogical Support for Pre-vocational Training of Students with Disabilities,” and Scientific Program No. BR24993269, “Evolution and Transformation of Value Orientations in Kazakhstani Society During the Independence Period.” The survey fieldwork, data preparation, and statistical analysis reported in this article were conducted and funded within Scientific Program No. BR24993269.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
This study examines associations between three proactive enablers of supply chain agility, SME performance, and supply chain risk management performance, and assesses the mediating and moderating roles of supply chain risk management performance and risk management culture. Data were collected through an online survey using convenience sampling and analyzed via PLS-SEM. The study included 224 SMEs operating in the West Bank, Palestine.
The findings indicated that market sensing (β = 0.358, p < 0.01) and supply chain integration (β = 0.318, p < 0.01) were positively and significantly associated with SME performance. In contrast, strategic sourcing (β = 0.050, p > 0.05) was not significant. Market sensing (β = 0.383, p < 0.01), strategic sourcing (β = 0.311, p < 0.01), and supply chain integration (β = 0.321, p < 0.01) were positively and significantly related to supply chain risk management performance. Supply chain risk management performance (β = 0.626, p < 0.01) was significantly related to SME performance. The results showed no moderating effect of risk management culture on the relationships between the three supply chain agility enablers and supply chain risk management performance (p > 0.05). Supply chain risk management performance significantly mediated the relationships between all three enablers and SME performance, with full mediation for strategic sourcing and partial mediation for supply chain integration and market sensing. Moreover, the model explains 77.3% of the variance in SME performance (R² = 0.773) and 61.3% of the variance in supply chain risk management performance (R² = 0.613).

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
This study aims to examine publication dynamics, citation inequality, author and country participation, international scientific collaboration, cited-reference relationships, and author-keyword structures in Scopus-indexed research on artificial intelligence in human resource management (HRM) published between 2000 and 2025. Following EID-level screening of 1,596 records, 659 publications were identified as thematically relevant to the topic of AI-HRM. The selected corpus accumulated 25,072 citations, averaging 38.05 citations per publication. Citation impact was highly concentrated, with a Gini coefficient of 0.7396 and 60.16% of citations attributable to the most-cited 10% of publications. Annual output increased from 16 publications in 2019 to 267 in 2025, corresponding to a compound annual growth rate of 59.86%. In addition, descriptive growth-model comparisons showed that the exponential model provided the strongest fit to the annual publication series (R² = 0.9945). International co-authorship was identified in 211 publications (32.02%). Country collaboration, cited-reference co-citation, and author-keyword networks were examined to characterize the intellectual and conceptual structure of the field. The study provides a traceable and reproducible bibliometric assessment of the documented indicators of publication growth, citation inequality, international collaboration, and thematic relationships within the selected AI-HRM corpus.

Acknowledgments
The research was supported through grant funding of the Science Committee of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan (grant IRN AP23490443), “Human capital management, improving the quality of labor resources in the context of the development of the digital economy.”

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly used in innovation activities, yet firm-level evidence on variation across innovation stages and organizational conditions remains limited in emerging economies such as Kazakhstan. This study examines AI use among surveyed firms in Kazakhstan, focusing on stage-specific influence, organizational correlates, barriers, reported effects, and managerial perceptions. A cross-sectional voluntary survey yielded a non-probability sample of 93 firms; data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, Friedman and Wilcoxon tests, exploratory bivariate analysis, multinomial logistic regression, and descriptive review of open-ended recommendations. In the sample, 39.8% reported no AI use in innovation activities; 23.7% used AI frequently or always. Idea generation was rated higher than idea testing and selection (r = .398), although concordance in stage rankings was weak (Kendall’s W = .077). The reported AI-related resource-category count was associated with both occasional (RRR = 6.98) and frequent AI use (RRR = 7.10) relative to no reported AI use in innovation activities. At the same time, firm size and age were not significant. Skills shortages, financial constraints, regulatory uncertainty, and ethical concerns were the leading barriers. Among firms reporting AI use in innovation activities, the most frequently reported effects were greater innovation-process efficiency (46.4%) and improved understanding of industry opportunities and trends (30.4%). The findings provide exploratory firm-level evidence and highlight the relevance of organizational resource support, pilot-based implementation, and human oversight.

Acknowledgment
This research was funded by the Science Committee of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Grant No. AP23487651).
The authors sincerely thank JSC "Center for International Programs" and the "500 Scientists" research internship program of the Republic of Kazakhstan. A. Zhidebekkyzy's participation in the "500 Scientists" program provided a valuable academic environment that inspired the initial idea for this study.