Diana Rojas-Torres

This article examines the rising adoption of generative AI (GAI) among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and its potential to enhance operational efficiency and strategic decision making. Although SMEs currently lag behind larger firms in GAI integration, they increasingly utilize these tools to overcome challenges such as resource constraints and high marketing costs.

Major companies in diverse industries have recently downsized or closed down their metaverse divisions. The authors look at the factors that have led to such strategies.

Consumers have turned to the Internet and social media (SM) platforms for information related to health advisories, medical cures, election advice, education needs, and research on just about anything. However, there is a troubling level of trust that should not be given to SM and the Internet by anyone. Some assume accuracy and validity of the information as it is believed that fact checking is prevalent, thorough, and unbiased. The level of reliability some give to information found on the Internet is troubling to say the least.

While blockchain applications are at a nascent stage of development in developing countries (referred to as “Southern countries” in this article), they are already having significant economic, political, and social impacts.1 Writing and implementing contracts are one area that is likely to benefit from blockchain. Specifically, smart contracts, which execute automatically when certain conditions are met, can address some of the deficiencies of existing problems associated with contract laws and their enforcement in Southern countries. In many cases, the real challenge is in the interpretation of the contract rather than the breach by a party. Often, an uncertainty about the meaning of the terms in a contract presents questions of interpretation.2 Since smart contracts are enforced by software codes, many of the interpretation-related problems are not likely to occur in such platforms. Among the major benefits, smart contracts can dramatically reduce costs associated with verification and enforcement. Other advantages include higher speed, precision, efficiency, and transparency. A key challenge in this is how Southern countries can benefit from blockchain and its potentially disruptive application in smart contracts. In this article, we attempt to assess the potential of blockchain-powered smart contracts in Southern economies vis-a`-vis traditional contracting mechanisms.

While prior research has looked at big data’s role in strengthening the environmental justice movement, scholars rarely examine the contexts, mechanisms and processes associated with the use of big data in monitoring and deterring environmental offenders, especially in the Global South. As such, this research aims to substitute for this academic gap through the use of multiple case studies of environmental offenders’ engagement in illegal deforestation, as well as legal deforestation followed by fire. Specifically, we have chosen four cases from three economies in the Global South: Indonesia, Peru and Brazil. We demonstrate how the data utilized by environmental activists in these four cases qualify as true forms of big data, as they have searched and aggregated data from various sources and employed them to achieve their goals. The article shows how big data from various sources, mainly from satellite imagery, can help discern the true extent of environmental destruction caused by various offenders and present convincing evidence. The article also discusses how a rich satellite imagery archive is suitable for analyzing chronological events in order to establish a cause-effect chain. In all of the cases studied, such evidentiary provisions have been used by environmental activists to oblige policy makers to take necessary actions to counter environmental offenses.

The use of big data solutions to make better and faster business decisions is no longer limited to large organizations. In recent years, micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in developing countries are increasingly benefiting from big data solutions. Such solutions have helped developing world-based MSMEs to improve business processes and market intelligence. Big data solutions have also helped them to increase access to financial services, such as loans, credit, and insurance.

El propósito de esta investigación es establecer cómo se vincula el clima organizacional y la satisfacción laboral en una empresa ecuatoriana del sector de la construcción. Como herramienta para determinar los factores del clima organizacional se utilizó el instrumento previamente validado por Ortega-Santos (2018) y en el caso de la medición de los factores de satisfacción laboral se implementó el instrumento Minnesota Satisfaction Questionari (MSQ). Los dos instrumentos se aplicaron a 250 trabajadores en una empresa del sector de la construcción en Ecuador. Metodológicamente, se llevó a cabo un estudio correlacional entre las dimensiones de clima y satisfacción. Se encontró que hay una relación positiva entre ambos constructos, concluyendo que las dimensiones del clima organizacional que tienen mayor incidencia sobre la satisfacción laboral son: recompensa y liderazgo. Estudios de este orden son relevantes para las organizaciones ya que les permite proponer y ejecutar planes de acción para mejorar el clima organizacional y la satisfacción laboral en sus empleados.

The 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang was a showcase of South Koreas technological advancement and sophistication.

This book provides a framework for evaluating big data and cloud computing based on how they evolve to fit users’ needs in developing countries in key areas, such as agriculture and education. The authors discuss how this framework can be utilized by businesses, governments, and consumers to accelerate economic growth and overcome information and communication barriers. By examining the ways in which cloud computing can drive social, economic, and environmental transformation, readers gain a nuanced understanding of the opportunities and challenges these technologies offer. The authors also provide an authoritative and up-to-date account of big data’s diffusion into a wide range of developing economies, such as Brazil and China, illustrating key concepts through in-depth case studies. Special attention is paid to economic development in the context of the new Sustainable Development Goals formulated by the United Nations, introducing readers to the most modern standard of economic evaluation. Students of information management, entrepreneurship, and development, as well as policy makers, researchers, and practitioners, will find Big Data and Cloud Computing for Development an interesting read and a useful reference source.