There is a shortage of research investigating the link between employee development practices and intellectual capital as mediated by knowledge management. The aim of the current research was to consider the influence of employee development practices on intellectual capital through knowledge management. Data were collected through an instrument distributed to a sample of 464 employees working at information and communications technology companies. The results indicate that employee development practices had significant effects on human capital, knowledge management, and social capital. The results reveal that knowledge management had a significant effect on human capital but not on social capital. Finally, the results show that knowledge management significantly mediated the impact of employee development practices on human capital. Additionally, implications for intellectual capital development, organizational strategy, and academic research are discussed.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between service quality, food quality, customer satisfaction and customer retention in limited service restaurants in Jordan. A questionnaire-based survey was distributed to 400 students served at 10 limited service restaurants in the neighbourhood of universities in Amman, the capital city of Jordan. Service quality was measured in terms of SERVQUAL attributes. The key dimensions of food quality, customer satisfaction and customer retention were identified through literature. The data collected (283 valid questionnaires) were analysed using SPSS 20.0. The findings showed that service quality and food quality have a positive influence on customer satisfaction. In addition, service quality dimensions besides customer satisfaction have a positive influence on customer retention. Finally, the results confirmed that customer satisfaction mediates the relationship between service quality and customer retention. The small size of the sample is the main limitation of this study. The practical implications of this study are founded on the fact that limited service restaurants in the neighbourhood of universities should realize the critical role of service and food quality in satisfying their customers as an antecedent of their retention. This study is original as it examines the relationships between service and food quality and customer satisfaction and retention in a specific type of restaurants in Jordan.

The aim of this study is to explore the critical success factors (CSFs) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Saudi Arabia. A questionnaire was developed using 28 factors/indicators identified from the previous researches. From 500 respondents, a total of 347 questionnaires were returned. By conducting exploratory factors analysis, these indicators were categorized into six factors, namely: Individual factors, business characteristics, management factors, business support, capital availability and business environment. Using IBM SPSS and AMOS, the results indicated that business support was the most critical factor that significantly affects the success of SMEs in Saudi Arabia, followed by individual factors, capital availability, and management factors. They also indicated that business characteristics and business environment factors had no significant impacts on the success of these enterprises.