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The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented disruptions to global supply chains, compelling organizations to reevaluate their strategies for resilience and adaptability. In response, smart technologies (ST) have emerged as integral tools in post-pandemic supply chain management (SCM). This study aims to conduct an exploratory systematic literature review to comprehensively examine the evolving landscape of smart technology adoption in the context of SCM post-pandemic.

A systematic literature review has been conducted to examine the potential research contribution or directions in the field of ST and SCM. In total, 240 articles were shortlisted from the SCOPUS database in the chosen field of research. Bibliometric analysis was conducted by using VOSviewer to investigate the research trends in the area of SCM.

The review identifies key themes and trends, including supply chain resilience, digital transformation, enhanced visibility, predictive analytics and sustainability considerations. It explores the role of ST in fostering agility, transparency and risk mitigation within supply chains. Furthermore, eight clusters were identified to generate several thematic topics of ST in SCM. The results have evidenced a strong gap related to Industry 5.0 approaches for the supply chain field. A total of 240 publications, including journal articles, have been found in the literature. A total of 37 words, which were grouped in 8 clusters, have been identified in the data analysis.

By synthesizing the current state of literature, this study provides valuable insights for practitioners, policymakers and researchers seeking to navigate the complexities of post-pandemic SCM in an increasingly digitized and interconnected world. The findings highlight the transformative potential of ST and offer a roadmap for further exploration in this critical domain.

In this paper, the development path of the field of ST in SCM during the pandemic and the research constructs are presented and potential research directions are based on the bibliometric method.

This paper compares the relative influence of perceived brand localness (PBL) and perceived brand globalness (PBG) on customer behavioral responses of brand loyalty (BL), willingness to pay price premiums (WTPP) and positive word of mouth (PWOM) towards retail banks. It further examines the mediating effects of brand trust (BT) on these relationships.

Data were collected from 320 retail banking customers in Trinidad and Tobago and analyzed with exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression analysis (MRA).

The findings show that PBL has a more substantial impact on BL, willingness to pay a price premium and PWOM compared to PBG. The results also show that BT mediates the relationships between PBL and PBG on customer brand-related responses. The effect is more substantial for brands perceived as local.

The findings have important implications for banks in developing countries and suggest that localized positioning and branding strategies will trigger preferential brand-related responses in retail banking services. The paper ends with a discussion on the practical implications of these findings and present future research opportunities.

The paper responds to the rising skepticism and discomfort with globalization. It offers bank managers valuable insights on how global and local branding strategies affect brand-related outcomes. The study contributes to the literature by empirically comparing the effects of PBL and PBG in retail banking and demonstrating the unique contribution of BT in explaining why customers respond differently to global and local brands. It also simultaneously considers multiple customer responses.

The study aims to facilitate the medical tourists visiting emerging countries for various kinds of ailments by ranking the possible destinations to avail medical treatments.

A Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchical Process (FAHP) with a mixed-method approach is applied to analyze data collected from patients and substantiate it with medical tour operators in India to gain managerial insights on the choice-making patterns of the patients.

India is a preferred emerging market location due to the low cost and high medical staff quality. India offers value for money, whereas Singapore and Thailand are preferred destinations for quality and technology.

The study will facilitate the emerging markets' governments, hospitals and medical tourists to understand the importance of various determinants responsible for availing medical treatment outside their country.

The study recommends that cost and quality care are the patients' prime focus; government policies must provide clear guidelines on what the hospitals and country environment can offer and accordingly align the marketing strategies.

This study is the first attempt to rank various factors affecting medical tourism using the FAHP approach.

This paper aims to assess the existing situation of psychological empowerment to employees and explore the relationship between psychological empowerment and competitive advantages in service sector of Nepal.

The study followed descriptive cum exploratory research design. Data collected through structured questionnaire based on Menon’s three-component model and Wright’s four-component model used to measure psychological employment and competitive advantages from employees of banking and hospital sector.

Psychological empowerment of employees in service sector is significantly different between public and private organizations. Even though the factors that are extracted are quite different than of Western practices, psychological empowerment has positive and significant impact on the competitive advantages.

This study is mainly based on service sector of Nepal: Banking and Hospital.

This paper is useful to academicians and practitioners seeking to develop psychological empowerment to achieve competitive advantages in their organizations and help to add values in people management areas particularly in South Asian corporations.

This is perhaps the very first investigation of its kind in the Nepalese context.

In the matter of food purity and control Hospital Catering Services have been outside the law, a privileged position where the general law of food and drugs have never applied and the modern regulatory control in food hygiene has similarly not applied. In the eyes of the general public hospital catering standards have always been high above the general run of food preparation. As the NHS continued, complaints began gradually to seep out of the closed community, of dirt in the kitchens and prevalent hygiene malpractices. The general standard for most hospitals remained high but there were no means of dealing with the small minority of complaints which disgusted patients and non‐cater‐ing staff, such as insect and rodent infestations, and an increase in the frequency of food poisoning outbreaks.

Children of recent refugees and immigrants are the fastest growing student population in the US public education system. Thus, it is imperative to create research-based pedagogies that value linguistic diversity, provide academic and social–emotional support and embrace life experiences that are often vastly different from those of the teachers and typical students. The goal of this study was to examine the effects of an instructional model designed to address specific academic and social–emotional competencies of linguistically and culturally diverse students on the writing of eight and nine-year-old students (n = 10) enrolled in an afterschool programme serving students from refugee families. The model of explicit writing instruction implemented in the study included culturally responsive literature, mindfulness practices, and differentiation in teaching genre-specific text structure and academic vocabulary. Pre- and post-test personal essays were scored for holistic quality of writing and use of academic vocabulary. The findings indicate that explicit and differentiated instruction in both writing organisation and vocabulary use was effective in increasing the holistic quality of students' personal writing and their ability to integrate academic vocabulary appropriately and meaningfully in independent writing. Implications for culturally responsive instruction for refugee students are discussed.

Among the various global options for self-employment, venturing into the micro-enterprise sector has been recognized as an important way for employment generation and poverty alleviation in many developing/emerging economies. In this context, women-owned businesses at the grassroots play a vital role in developing countries like India far beyond contributing to job creation and economic growth. The informal sector is a sizeable and expanding feature of the contemporary global economy.

However, the informal economy operates at the cusp of the institutional framework, which makes them susceptible to many risks like lack of formal financing options, legal aid or increasing margin through access to formal markets. Non-Profit Development Agencies (NPDAs) have emerged as a viable and essential middle ground support in promoting women entrepreneurship in their capacity to contribute beyond governmental institutions.

The study adopted an inductive qualitative option through a case study design to explore the approaches adopted by NPDAs in promoting micro-entrepreneurship among women at the base of the pyramid (BoP) in the urban informal sector in India. The findings suggest that the NPDAs created an impact through the services, which translated into monetary earnings for the entrepreneurs. They could make financial contributions to their families, which boosted their self-confidence and overall personality. The findings also indicate positive changes like increased self-confidence, self-dependence, and inner strength as reported by the entrepreneurs.

THE somewhat limited attendance at the Annual Meeting of the London and Home Counties Branch of the Library Association at Twickenham gave some colour to the contention of one of our writers that London is rather moribund to‐day. Fortunately it cannot be said that the younger members of the profession are losing their interest, because the bulk of the attendance was of assistants, and as the A.L.A. section has its own monthly meetings, it will be seen that assistants are doing their share. The chief librarians of London, and in this we include librarians of other than public libraries, make at present a most: disappointing showing. A few years, or even months, ago this could be attributed to the fact that they were all senior men whose vitality, if not their interest, had been reduced by age. To‐day, however, every library in London is in the hands of a young man. There is something significant in the fact that they do not come together in any numbers. When we read from the Annual Report of the Branch that the membership is nearly 700, we are somewhat surprised to learn that the attendance at Twickenham was less than one‐forteenth of that number.