Delay is the leading challenge in completing Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) projects. Delay can cause excess costs, which reduces company profits. The relationship between subcontractors and the main contractor is a critical factor that can support the success of an EPC project. The problematic financial condition of the main contractor can cause delay in payments to subcontractors. This research will set a model that combines the system dynamics and earned value method to describe the impact of subcontractor advance payments on project performance. The system dynamics method is used to model and analyze the impact of interactions between variables affecting project performance, while the earned value method is applied to quantitatively evaluate project performance and forecast schedule and cost outcomes. These two methods are used complementarily to achieve a holistic understanding of project dynamics and to optimize decision-making. The designed model selects the optimum scenario for project time and costs. The developed model comprises project performance, costs, cash flow, and performance forecasting sub-models. The novelty in this research is a new model for optimizing project implementation time and costs, adding payment rate variables to subcontractors and subcontractor performance rates. The designed model can provide additional information to assist project managers in making decisions.

Students from different cultures possess varying levels of skills in learning, remembering, and understanding concepts. Some terms and their explanations may seem easy for one group of students but difficult for another. Therefore, delivering educational content that aligns with student’s learning capabilities is a challenging task based on cultural orientations. This study addresses the learning challenges by developing a Thesaurus Glossary E-learning (TGE) framework method. This study introduces the TGE method which is a multi-language tool with visual associations that adapts to students’ capabilities. It also examines cultural differences and native languages, particularly aiding Arab Native to visualize appropriate terms (thesaurus) and their explanations (glossary) based on students’ learning capabilities. TGE learns from students’ term selection behavior and displays terms at a simple or advanced level that matches their learning ability. Additionally, TGE demonstrated its effectiveness as an e-learning tool, accessible to all students anytime and anywhere. The study analyzed 314 records related to student performance, out of which 114 students were surveyed to evaluate the effectiveness of the TGE method. This work presents TGE as a novel e-learning tool designed to enhance conceptual thinking within the context of modern educational practices during the digital transformation. TGE is based on artificial intelligence algorithms and associative rules that simulate the human brain, establishing logical connections between related key terms and sketching associations among diverse facets of a situation. An experiment was conducted at a private university in the Sultanate of Oman to assess the effectiveness of the proposed TGE tool. TGE was integrated with selected subjects in information systems and used by the students as a resource for e-learning methods and materials. The results show that 85% of students who used TGE improved their performance by 19%. We believe this work could establish a new smart e-learning teaching method and attract modern and digital universities to enhance student learning outcomes linked with conceptual thinking.

The Malaysian government's efforts to promote solar photovoltaic (PV) usage among households face a challenge due to its low adoption rate. This study delves into the factors influencing the exponential adoption of solar PV electricity generation among landed residential property owners in Malaysia. The research aims to comprehensively examine the predictors influencing the adoption of solar PV systems among Malaysian households. Hence, the study employs an enhanced Theory of Planned Behavior framework, integrating sustainable energy security dimensions such as availability, affordability, efficiency, acceptability, regulation, and governance. The sample comprised 556 Malaysian residents who owned and resided in the landed properties. The home locations where at least one solar PV installation existed within a residential street. Snowball sampling was employed through referrals, leveraging social and community networks. Collected data was analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling. Attitude, affordability, and acceptability emerged as pivotal factors significantly impacting the intention to use solar PV systems among Malaysian households. This research not only enriches academic discourse but also offers practical implications for policymakers, guiding the formulation of targeted strategies to promote sustainable energy practices and facilitate the widespread adoption of solar PV systems in Malaysia.

The proposed scientific article aims to analyze the application of Lean Six Sigma in the food industry. To this end, a detailed methodology has been designed that ranges from the selection of the works to the synthesis and presentation of the results obtained. The methodology is based on rigorous inclusion criteria to ensure the relevance and quality of the selected sources, including books, academic articles, theses, and other relevant documents. Through extensive searches of academic databases and other reliable sources, key works were identified that specifically address the implementation of Lean Six Sigma in the context of food production. Once the relevant papers were collected, a critical analysis was conducted to identify common themes, trends, and key findings. The works were classified according to their main focus, such as process improvement, waste reduction, supply chain optimization and food safety assurance. This categorization allowed the information to be organized in a coherent way and to facilitate the synthesis of the results. The results obtained were presented in a table that included details about each selected work, such as title, author, year of publication, abstract and links to the original source. This structured and rigorous approach provides a clear and comprehensive view of the topic, contributing to the advancement of knowledge in this area and offering practical guidance for practitioners and researchers interested in the application of Lean Six Sigma in the food industry. The literature on Lean Six Sigma in the food industry highlights its importance in improving efficiency, quality, and safety. Key recommendations include gradual implementation, appropriate training, focus on quality, and continuous improvement.

This study aims to have a more diversified view of the online visibility through attempting to evaluate the effectiveness of various SEO strategies in placing on website in search engine result. This research involves 400 respondents where it checks how keywords as one of the SEO strategies affect website ranking as well as technical SEO and off-page strategies. The appropriateness of the relevant keyword, as the result shows, there is a significant connection with the website ranking, closely trailing the importance of technical SEO in positioning the website on the first page, exerting a pronounced impact. While off-page strategies are the third most dazzling one: a significant degree of its residence/impact on website ranking. This research is a significant contribution to the field of digital marketing and its literature as it delivers an in-depth understanding on the major factors that affects online visibility and website ranking.

Business model innovation (BMI) has garnered substantial academic and corporate attention in recent decades. Researchers have not yet agreed on the most complicated BMI practices in the high-tech startups (HTS). Despite being the second-biggest economy in the world today, China has done little research on the practice of business model innovation in China’s high-tech startups. This study addresses the factors that impact the business model innovation of high-tech startups in China. Our study aims to fill the research gap by visualising and analysing, using systematic literature review (SLR) analyses and reviewing 36 in-depth articles, from 688 academic literature sources. Relevant publications from Scopus, Springer, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, and the JDM e-library expose the current research status from 2013 to December 2023 without bias. We conducted a literature-based investigation to identify essential insights on the BMI factors in the literature and derived a high-tech startup’s BMI critical factor. Our study shows that three main factors affect the innovation of business models in high-tech startups in China. The findings raise managers’, entrepreneurs’, and executives’ knowledge of corporate resource bricolage and cognitive style constraints in business model innovation and their pros and cons. The findings will help Chinese academics understand enterprises’ institutional environment and resource bricolage as final suggestions and proposals for corporates, regulators, and policymakers are presented.