Malaysia’s economic development strategies have evolved significantly since independence, focusing on reducing poverty, enhancing education, and integrating technology to foster sustainable growth. Despite substantial progress, challenges persist in achieving inclusive development across rural and urban sectors. This study examines the effectiveness of Malaysia’s New Economic Model (NEM) in addressing poverty and unemployment through technological and educational advancements. Employing a qualitative approach, it reviews literature on technology’s impact on economic growth, poverty alleviation, and the role of tertiary education in national development. Analysis reveals that while NEM initiatives have attracted foreign investment and improved infrastructure, gaps remain in educational access and technological self-reliance. The findings underscore the need for targeted policies that enhance educational outcomes, promote inclusive technology adoption, and address structural inequalities to achieve sustainable economic development. Recommendations include bolstering vocational training, enhancing rural infrastructure, and fostering public-private partnerships in technology innovation to ensure equitable economic progress.

Recently, there has been a lot of buzz on social media, particularly in the form of vlogs, about newly launched semi-high speed trains in India popularly known as Vande Bharat Express. However, no information is available about the extent to which people trust the vlogs promoting the trains and the trains themselves. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the impact of watching vlogs about semi-high speed trains on the trust and attitude towards them, and how they perceive the risks associated. This study is guided by the trust transfer theory to investigate how trust transference can lead to a traveler’s intent to use semi-high speed trains. This study involved 338 participants. The relationship between variables was examined using SmartPLS 4 software. The findings indicate that trust in semi-high speed trains can be established through vlogs leading to intention to use. On the theoretical side, it provides insight into how trust, attitude, and perceived risk can affect the adoption of new technology, while on the practical side, it helps to understand how vlog coverage can be used as a tool to increase trust and ultimately drive adoption. Vlog coverage, trust in vlog content, trust in semi-high speed trains and behavioural intention altogether are not well understood in current literature despite the important implication for managers, academicians and consumers alike. This study contributes to the field of transportation and railways, social media and communication, and hospitality and tourism research. The study helps policy makers to understand users’ characteristics regarding the latest social media tools and adopt them accordingly to provide a better governance policy.

This study is aimed at exploring the degree of association between workforce diversity dimensions and the academic performance of four universities in Ethiopia. The diversity management attributes were diversity, climate, values, and organizational justice; identity, schemas, and communication adapted to the contexts of higher education institutions. The universities were selected purposively, and stratified and systematic sampling techniques were further used to identify respondents. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected to achieve the purpose of the study. Correlation and regression analyses were used to analyze the data. Results from correlation analysis revealed that there are statistically significant positive relations between the dimensions of workforce diversity and academic performance. This implies that the organizational performance of higher education institutions can be significantly influenced by existing diversity. The freedom to express one’s own identity in the university workforce landscape was also observed to be limited in the universities studied, and this has to be improved. A democratic work environment is critical for the productivity of the staff, and an effort has to be geared towards the goal of creating such an environment. The regression analysis indicated that diversity, climate, organizational justice, identity, schema, and communication have statistically significant effects on the academic performance of higher educational institutions in Ethiopia. Finally, academic leaders are advised to apply the transformational leadership style, as it moderates the relationship between diversity management and academic performance.

In an era of intensified market competition, internal brand management (IBM) has emerged as a critical strategy for aligning employee behavior with brand values. This study investigates how IBM influences brand citizenship behavior (BCB) among front-line restaurant employees in Macao, emphasizing the mediating role of brand identification (BI) and simultaneously testing the moderating effect of leader-member exchange (LMX). Drawing from Social Identity Theory and Social Exchange Theory, the structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the model using data from 315 employees across 11 Macao restaurant companies. Analyzing via software package Smart-Pls 4.1, we found that IBM significantly enhances BI, which in turn strongly predicts BCB. While IBM directly impacts BCB, the effect is mediated by BI. Furthermore, LMX moderates the IBM-BI relationships, underscoring the role of leadership in internal branding effectiveness. These findings contribute to the internal branding literature by validating BI as a key psychological mechanism and LMX as a boundary condition. Practically, the study provides insights for restaurant industry seeking to foster brand-aligned behaviors through internal brand management.

This paper explores diverse conceptualizations of leadership, emphasizing its profound impact on individuals and organizations. Leadership's influence on followers' daily lives, necessitating adaptation to modern complexities. Various theories offer distinct perspectives: distributed leadership emphasizes shared expertise. While charismatic leadership focuses on vision alignment. Authentic leadership promotes ethical climates, while Emotional Intelligence theory emphasizes emotional competencies. Ethical leadership underscores moral conduct. Five Domains Leadership highlights talent management and strategy execution, while Leadership Transition Theory discusses dynamic changes. Other theories include direct/indirect leadership, entrepreneurial leadership, and leader-member exchange. Participative leadership explores decision-making styles, and situational leadership aligns styles with follower maturity. Trait and behavioral theories focus on inherent traits and learned behaviours. This review underscores leadership's complexity, offering insights into its diverse conceptualizations and practical implications across contexts.