Although the tourism industry has continued to exert a significant impact on economies of most destinations, the impacts of political (in) security, socioeconomic and financial dynamics in the destination countries are equally playing decisive roles. Mirroring from this perspective, this study examined the role of political risk, exchange rate and inflation rate on the inbound international tourists in the panel of 76 destinations over the period 1995–2017. By employing the Pooled OLS (Ordinary Least Square) and the Generalized Moment of Methods (GMM), the estimation results suggest that the political risk is a significant impediment to the growth of total tourism arrivals in the panel countries. In addition, high exchange and inflation rates, respectively, impact international tourism arrivals (ITAs) in a positive and negative pattern. Moreover, the findings show that the impact of political risk on ITAs is significant, and has a positive and negative effect in the low- and high-risk destinations, respectively. While the study urges for a formidable drive towards sustainable conflict resolution in destination countries, it further presents recommendations for preventing potential spillover effects in the event of the political, economic or financial crisis.

This study focuses on investigating the role of innovation speed in mediating the relationship between total quality management and small and medium-sized enterprise performance. Cross-sectional data from 484 Nigerian small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises were collected using judgmental sampling, which was targeted at the owners and managers of small-scale manufacturing enterprises within Nigeria. The obtained data were evaluated using both descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. Hence, the heuristic model for the relationship was subjected to a string of tests using the partial least squares structural equation modeling technique. The results show that total quality management is positively related to operational performance as well as innovation speed, which has a substantial influence on the nexus between total quality management (TQM) and small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SME) performance. The study expands the understanding of innovation, regarding speed and its measures within total quality management, where the five basic dimensions of total quality management are top management quality practices, employee quality management, customer orientation, process management, and employee knowledge and training. Furthermore, the model contributes to the scarce literature on the mediating factors needed to boost the operational performance of small-scale manufacturing firms.

Despite the considerable growth of interest in medical tourism in the last decade, there is no standard procedure to measure the pivotal factors in medical tourism destinations. Medical tourism is a rising global phenomenon that is strongly dependent on innovation and knowledge management. Being both innovative and systematic in medical tourism requires thought enrichment in knowledge management in hospitals. By applying a quantitative method, “knowledge management-oriented innovation” items have been used in this study to analyze new products or services related to active hospitals in medical tourism in Iran. This study presents the positive effects of the most essential knowledge management areas such as time, cost, and quality management orientation, on operational performance through the mediating role of innovation speed. In the current study, hospitals of Iran that are active in the medical tourism area have been considered as the final destination. Additionaly, because this study coincides with the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic as the global health crisis which has a considerable effect on medical tourism, the managerial implications have been developed to help managers and decision-makers in order to apply the obtained findings during the pandemic and post-pandemic period.

Purpose: It is necessary for organizations to have committed employees to perform properly and be able to survive in a competitive world. One of the key components of organizational commitment is implementation of ethical leadership. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between ethical leadership and organizational commitment in fire organizations of Tehran.Design/methodology/approach: A descriptive-correlational study was carried out in 2019. The sample consisted of 200 randomly selected participants, active in executive and headquarters divisions of fire department in Tehran. To collect data, a questionnaire with three different parts: demographics, organizational commitment questionnaire and the ethical leadership scale, was used. Data analysis were performed by AMOS24 and SPSS software, and data are presented as descriptive statistics of frequency, percentages, mean ± standard deviation (SD) and Pearson’s correlation coefficient.Findings: Mean and SD for organizational commitment and ethical leadership were 3.44 ± 0.7 and 3.66 ± 0.62, respectively. Affective commitment had the highest average score among organizational commitment dimensions (3.63 ± 0.75). Among ethical leadership dimensions, ethical management showed the highest average (3.79 ± 0.70). Each component of organizational commitment, i.e. affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment, also showed a significant relationship with ethical leadership (p< 0.05). Model fit results revealed that independent variables could anticipate 87% of changes of dependent variables in organizational commitment.Originality/value: The results show a significantly positive relationship between ethical leadership and organizational commitment among the firefighters. Therefore, by using ethical leadership method, i.e. being a role model, improving the relations between management and employees, establishing trust and mutual respect, managers of fire departments can increase firefighters’ organizational commitment, affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment and prevent them from quitting.

To characterize the process of lead-time reduction in EPC project-based organizations, including the engineering, procurement, and construction activities, various elements such as organizational issues, firm resources, used methods and techniques, and performance measuring tools are important. In this study, the four mentioned elements are evaluated through a survey in different EPC project-based organizations. The survey is sent to only experts and managers who are involved in EPC projects, and the obtained data is used to test the relationship between the mentioned variables and the lead time of developing new products. This evaluation is followed by a set of generalized lessons learned and courses of action to improve the development process. Additionally, the attributes of performance measurement in such projects are scrutinized. Therefore, to analyze the impacts of the mentioned variables and their variations on the performance measurement, a mathematical model based on the fuzzy approach is developed. The results show that all of the four considered variables are correlated to the lead time and affect the quality perceived by the main client and the cost of the project. Moreover, data obtained from the proposed mathematical formulations illustrated that the fuzzy modeling approach is an effective method to predict the performance measurement level when the levels of the input variables are given.

Despite the active contribution, promotion, and emergent in medical tourism, few studies have examined the significant contribution of cost and quality management-oriented innovation on medical tourists. Hospital administrators’ application of knowledge management practices buffers a yardstick for both innovation and patient-oriented. A total of 214 questionnaires were collected from general and functional managers in Iranian hospitals. partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was performed to analyze the data using Smart PLS 3. The findings suggest that both cost- and quality-oriented innovation significantly increase patient satisfaction. Additionally, low-cost and high-quality services stand as mediating variables for patient satisfaction. By emphasizing on innovation and knowledge management, the current study’s results indicate the significance of low-cost and high-quality services for satisfied patients. The study concludes with implications for research and directions for future study. For the first time, the current study proposed a model to examine how low-cost and high-quality services mediates the impact of cost and quality management-oriented innovation on patient satisfaction.