The authors examine various aspects of the organizational knowledge capabilities and assess their impact on the organizational performance of private firms in Oman. Ten hypotheses are developed, linking the dimensions of organizational knowledge capabilities (OKC) (technological, cultural, managerial, and collaborative) with the aspects of performance. The path analysis technique is used to test the hypotheses; only four hypotheses depicted the effect of OKC on performance. They find that managerial capabilities play a significant role but have an indirect positive effect on enhancing performance. They have a higher impact only when they are inter-linked with collaborative capabilities, which have a direct and significant effect on performance. This paper deciphers the various knowledge capabilities and establishes inter-linkages among them in the firm context. The results enable the development of a productive knowledge management ecosystem in the business environment and spotlight on the wise investment of IT in achieving business goals.

As 2030 approaches, countries are challenged to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations in 2015. In addition to public policies, innovation is at the core of global sustainable development ambitions. Accordingly, this study examines how technological innovation, economic growth, clean energy use, natural resources, and industrialization affect the load capacity factor (LCF) of the 10 most innovative countries, based on data from 1997 to 2020. Unlike conventional indicators (e.g. ecological footprint, CO₂ emissions), the LCF captures both the demand and supply dimensions of ecosystems and represents a comprehensive environmental indicator. The method of moments quantile regression (MMQR) method is used to estimate these relationships across different quantiles. The results suggest that increase in natural resources, economic growth and industrialization decreases LCF across all quantiles, while clean energy and technological innovation significantly enhance LCF, particularly in lower and middle quantiles. These results imply that policies to promote green innovation and sustainable energy should be paramount in improving environmental quality and guiding countries towards achieving the SDG targets.

The healthcare sector has faced increasing pressures to reduce costs and increase healthcare quality in recent years. Thus, managing knowledge in healthcare organizations is critical to achieving low-cost optimization of higher quality services. Also, information technology (IT) plays an essential and crucial role in providing a central database for managing patient data in the healthcare sector. The current study investigates the effects of three aspects of knowledge capabilities (i.e., individual knowledge capabilities, managerial knowledge capabilities, and collaborative organizational capabilities) on information technology governance in healthcare institutions in the Sultanate of Oman. Data were collected using a non-simple random sampling technique by distributing a questionnaire completed by (325) employees working in (13) public hospitals and medical centers in (8) governorates. The collected data were analyzed using AMOS software and structural equation modeling (SEM). This study indicates that individual knowledge capabilities significantly affect only one dimension of IT governance: IT risk management. Moreover, collaborative knowledge capabilities significantly influence all dimensions of IT governance pillars in healthcare institutions, while managerial knowledge capabilities have no significant effect. The study findings can be used to deeply understand the role of knowledge capabilities in sustaining the IT governance application in the health sector context.

This research is an inquiry of Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies (COBIT) as a high-level governance and control framework which was proposed by ITGI by providing incite and statistical evidence investigating whether ITGI pillars can be accounted for the same IT governance dimension. The data were collected via a questionnaire distributed to 40 private organizations in the Middle East, comprising a sample size of 179 respondents of strategic- and tactical-level managers. To investigate the research questions, the researchers apply an exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses using EQS 6.3 and SPSS 21. The findings of the research indicate that there is an awareness of the nature of the relationship that IT governance has with its various factors as suggested by the COBIT framework: business/IT alignment, IT value delivery, IT resource management, IT risk management and IT performance. The findings also revealed that “IT risk management” is the leading indicator in explaining the IT governance application behavior. The validated model of ITGOV shows that “IT business alignment” has the least significant impact on the study sample. The overall results illustrate the needs and the imperatives of the model factors in achieving a better understanding of the characteristic value of the ITGOV applications using the COBIT framework as suggested by ITGI.

This paper aims to examine the relationship of four critical demographic factors, namely, Father’s occupation, Gender, Experience and Level of education on the entrepreneurial intention of Omani university students. The study uses a structured questionnaire to conduct a survey which is administered to the students of Dhofar University. The data collected are analyzed and it is found that there is a high level of intentions among students to start entrepreneurial ventures. Moreover, demographic factors are found to be influencing the entrepreneurial intention. Among the demographic factors experience is found to have the maximum influence on the entrepreneurial interest. The results suggest a need to provide students with on job training for gaining experience along with their educational programs. As an increase in experience will lead to a higher entrepreneurial intention of students and thus the likelyhood of a student becoming an entrepreneur will increase. Furthermore, universities and government should promote entrepreneurship training programs taking into account the Father’s occupation, Gender, Experience and Education Levels of students