Mobile learning adoption for tourism education in a developing country

Since developing countries are gradually introducing mobile-based tourism education, it is a growing demand to understand the students’ intention to adopt mobile learning. The study used partial least squares-based structural equation modelling to analyse survey data from 176 questionnaires at three tourism education institutes in Bangladesh. The study contributes to the theory of planned behaviour by examining the antecedent impact of innovativeness and moderating effect of self-efficacy. Results confirmed innovativeness as a significant antecedent on the attitude–intention relationship; however, the moderating effect of self-efficacy has not been supported. The study has marketing implications for tourism education institutes and government bodies.     

GDP growth determinants and foreign direct investment causality: the case of Iran

Given the economic conditions in Iran and the need to accelerate its economic growth, there is a rising interest in examining the variables that fuel its GDP growth. The scant literature on economic growth in Iran is composed of only a few scholarly studies that investigate this nation's GDP growth. However, none of these studies has examined the causality between GDP growth and its determining elements. The purpose of this study is: (1) to determine the economic variables that contribute to Iran's GDP per capita growth over time, and (2) to examine the causality between foreign direct investment and the relevant variables that are included in the model. To achieve these goals the study uses a model that is based on the postulates of de Mello. The results indicate that: (1) the major determinants of GDP per capita growth in Iran are value added growth and domestic investment growth; (2) there is no causal relationship between foreign direct investment growth and GDP per capita growth in Iran in either direction; and (3) there is no causal relationship between foreign direct investment growth and value added growth in Iran in either direction.     

Green Agriculture: foundations for biodiverse,resilient and productive agricultural systems

There are many visions on how to achieve a sustainable agriculture that provides enough food and ecosystem services for present and future generations in an era of climate change, increasing costs of energy, social unrest, financial instability and increasing environmental degradation. New agricultural systems that are able to confront the challenges of a rapidly changing world require a minimum of ten attributes that constitute the defining elements of a Green Agriculture. A major challenge is to identify a set of thresholds that any agricultural production strategy must meet, beyond which unsustainable trends caused by the farming technologies would lead to tipping-point phenomena. Only those styles of agriculture that meet the established threshold criteria while advancing rural communities towards food, energy and technological sovereignty would be considered viable forms of Green Agriculture. Considering the diversity of ecological, socio-economic, historical and political contexts in which agricultural systems have developed and are evolving in, it is only wise to define a set of flexible and locally adaptable principles and boundaries of sustainability and resiliency for the agroecosystems of the immediate future.