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Strategic decision importance has rarely been investigated as a decision-specific characteristic in the strategic decision-making process (SDMP) literature taking into consideration information management while taking important strategic decisions. Here, the ability of decision importance to predict decision effectiveness as an outcome of SDMPs in higher education institutions (HEIs) is examined in the context of Bahrain.

A conceptual model is developed relating decision importance to decision effectiveness indirectly via the SDMP characteristics intuition, rationality and decentralization. Data from a cross-sectional questionnaire completed by leaders of HEIs and academics involved in strategic decision-making in Bahrain are used to test the model and hypotheses via correlation analysis. The paper also considers a literature review of the use of information management while taking a strategic decision.

Decision importance is shown to positively influence decision effectiveness in Bahraini HEIs mediated by rationality and by decentralization in decision-making, although negative effects of decentralization are also demonstrated. However, decision importance does not influence decision effectiveness mediated by intuition.

Due to the small sample size, the results cannot be generalized to contexts beyond HEIs in Bahrain. Additional SDMP characteristics of significance in the context of HEIs could be future investigated, for instance, political behaviour and lateral communication, are not included in the model. Future research exploring the latter two aspects could provide deeper insight into the findings.

The findings of this paper could be considered by HEIs senior management and members of the governing body while strategic decision-making, which could be at different levels, including strategic planning or assessing a strategic decision in terms of effectiveness. This paper will also provide insight one the use of information while considering strategic decision-making.

A model leading for effective strategic decision-making could be used by leaders of HEIs and regulators including licensing bodies and QA agencies to set standards for HEIs for sustainable performance and quality education in line with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Initiative. Strategic decision-making will have an impact on the overall performance of HEIs and serve all relevant stakeholder’s including parents, students, employers and industry.

Little research conducted in relation to strategic decision-making in the Gulf Cooperation Council therefore, this research will add original findings and the outcome of this study will lead to future research related to SDMP and the use of information management in the overall strategic decision-making.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to scientifically test the credibility (proof or refutation) of the existing argument for a technological leap in the COVID-19 pandemic and the post-pandemic period.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The conducted review of existing sources of research literature showed that they have formed an insufficient scientific background for a clear understanding of digital deprivation of services, social contradictions and conflict management as components of technological leap amid the COVID-19 pandemic and in the post-pandemic period. To fill the identified gap in the system of scientific knowledge, this work uses the method of comparative analysis of statistical data. Some countries of the world, the EU countries and the United States, which are characterized by the largest population and the largest contribution of investments to the digitalization of value chains and the development of innovations, were selected as objects for this study.

Findings: Research has shown that rapid digitalization is impacting all aspects of life, including not only how value is created and exchanged, but also how we interact, operate, purchase and receive services. In this process, data and its international flows are becoming increasingly important for development. The usual digital gap associated with connectivity, reflecting significant differences between and within countries in readiness to use the power of data, is exacerbated by what might be termed the data gap. Countries with limited opportunities to transform digital data into digital analytics and entrepreneurial opportunities, and to use them for economic and social development, are obviously at a disadvantage.

Originality/Value: Digital data have been proven to be one of the top strategic assets for creating both private and public value. Our ability to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, 2015) depends a lot on how these data are applied. The idea of sustainable development arose, as it is known, for overcoming significant fluctuations in the positive transformation of society, and for the alignment in the pace and results of the transition of various countries to the post-industrial scenario of progress. There are many obstacles on the path of sustainable development, which hinder the transition to this vector of transformation. First, the gap in economic and social development between the countries of the ‘golden billion’ and many other countries has not been reduced. Second, the digital gap continues to deepen. But a new and extremely threatening danger on the path to the transition to sustainable development has become the global crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that emerged in early 2020 and is still ongoing.

Determining the right course for the future is a difficult task, but its solution cannot be postponed. Data are multidimensional, and their use has an impact not only on trade and economic development but also on human rights, peace and security. In addition, measures should be taken to reduce the risk of misuse and unauthorized use of digital data by states, non-states or the private sectors to avoid the possibility of global social conflict.

Purpose: The paper aims to explore gender conflict as a factor of global technological inequality from a modelling and conflict management perspective through an analysis of women’s participation in science.

Design/methodology/approach: A review of the existing research literature has shown that there is an insufficient scientific basis for identifying the extent of gender conflict as a factor of global technological inequality through an analysis of women’s participation in science. Statistical data analysis is used to fill the identified gap in the scientific knowledge system. The countries chosen for study are those with the largest gender gaps and technological inequalities in terms of women’s participation in science and knowledge-intensive industries as well as in R&D.

Findings: The chapter reviews the factors that make the case, from an academic perspective, for the technological inequalities and gender gaps in the world leading to global employment conflict. The field of education encompasses numerous interrelated aspects, ranging from the level of demand and supply of educational opportunities to the access and delivery of education. These aspects also relate to the quality of teaching and the learning process, the effectiveness of the education system, individual learning outcomes, and the impact of education on the development and well-being of the individual, the community and the country as a whole. Scientific researchers make an important contribution to improving the quality of the education system: scientific research produces new knowledge further implemented through the education system. Such knowledge can improve people’s lives. Research is often carried out in universities, but also in the commercial sector, particularly in high-tech companies (Research and Development).

Originality/value: Education has been proven to be one of the resources that provide people with equal opportunities in life. Integrating a gender perspective into education includes assessing and promoting gender equality in learning opportunities available to men and women throughout their lives, especially during compulsory education. The gender approach also includes assessing the fairness of the delivery of educational services (such as training, management and course content).

Digital development is often considered only from one – economic – side through the lens of its positive contribution to the acceleration of economic growth rate and increase in the global competitiveness level. In this case, conflicts of economic subjects’ interests remain outside the scope of scientific research. The essence of these conflicts consists in the fact that despite the economic advantages, digital development is usually connected to social drawbacks and ecological costs.

Purpose: The purpose of this chapter is to scientifically verify the credibility (prove or disprove) the existing argument for the global technological inequality within the conflict of traditions and innovations, as well as from the perspective of social consequences of the innovative development of the economy and the basics of conflict management.

Design/methodology/approach: A review of existing sources of research literature has shown that they formed an insufficient scientific basis for determining the essence and scope of social consequences of the innovative development of the economy and the basics of conflict management in terms of global technological inequality. The method of comparative analysis of statistical data over time is used to fill the identified gap in the scientific knowledge system in this chapter. The top 10 countries of the world, which are characterized by the highest level of the innovative development of the economy, were chosen as the objects of study.

Findings: This chapter presents a review of facts determining that there are arguments for the conflict of traditions and innovations against the backdrop of global technological progress from a scientific perspective, a conflict that has social consequences for the innovative development of the economy and the basics of conflict management. Today, the protection and promotion of national interests are being increasingly determined by digitalization as the primary function of diplomatic services. For example, cybersecurity affects national security; web platforms support the economic well-being of citizens and companies; the Internet contributes to the development of healthcare, education and other essential social services, especially during the crisis caused by the COVID-19.

Originality/value: It is expected that wide introduction of high technologies in developed countries will reduce the competitive ability of currently less industrialized economies of Asia and Africa in terms of cost of labour, will increase the technological gap between them and developed countries that will diversify their economies and create more jobs. In the past, countries such as China, Mexico, Brazil and several Asian countries were climbing the income ladder, transferring labour force and capital from the relatively inefficient agricultural economy to the more efficient products and services. Today, there are fears that high technologies and Industry 4.0 will revolutionize these conventional development processes, making a thorny path even more thorny, and will lead to conflicts of traditions and innovations as a source of global technological inequality.

No longer do resource economists merely regard nature as a collection of inert materials to be improved by human labor and manufactured capital; rather, nature is, to an increasing extent, taken to be a mindless producer of economically valuable ecosystem goods and services. Instances of natural capital are frequently said to produce such goods and services in a manner that is relatively detached from human agency. This article argues that, historically, the idea of nature as a systematic original producer capable of self-generation is hardly novel. The eighteenth-century roots of this idea can be found in the writings of Carl Linnaeus who depicted the whole Earth and all of its productions as the “oeconomy of nature.”