Big data (BD) analytics has been increasingly gaining attraction in both practice and theory in light of its opportunities, barriers and expected benefits. In particular, emerging economics view big data analytics as having great importance despite the fact that it has been in a constant struggle with the barriers that prevent its adoption. Thus, this study primarily attempted to determine the drivers of big data analytics in the context of a developing economy, Jordan. The study examined the influence of technological, organizational and environmental factors on big data adoption in the Jordanian SMEs context, using PLS-SEM for the analysis. The empirical results revealed that the relative advantage, complexity, security, top management support, organizational readiness and government support influence the adoption of BD, whilst pressure of competition and compatibility appeared to be of insignificant influence. The findings are expected to contribute to enterprise management and strategic use of data analytics in the present dynamic market environment, for both researcher and practitioner circles concerned with the adoption of big data in developing countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced an unprecedented change in the educational system worldwide. Besides the economic and social impacts, there is a dilemma of accepting the new educational system "e-learning" by students within educational institutions. In particular, universities students have to handle several kinds of environmental, electronic and mental struggles due to COVID-19. To catch the current circumstances of more than two hundred thousand Jordanian university student during COVID-19. The students have been randomly selected to respond on an online survey using universities' portals and websites between March and April 2020. At the end of the data gathering process, we have received 587 records. The dataset includes 1) Demographics of students; 2) students’ perspectives concerning the factors influencing their intention to use e-learning system within the Jordanian universities context. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares - Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). Next, the result has confirmed the positive of direct effect variables (subjective norm, perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness) on the students’ intention to use e-learning system. Next, the result has also confirmed the mediating effect of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use between subjective norm and the behavioral intention to use the e-learning system with partially supported.

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In this research, we look at the antecedents of accounting information system (AIS) usage and their impact on the effectiveness of AIS. Therefore, drawing upon the resource-based view (RBV) and the technology–organization–environment (TOE) framework, we propose an integrated model to investigate the precursors and impacts of AIS utilization among Jordanian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The model so proposed incorporates the usage of AIS and its performance aspects into one framework. The current research utilized a self-administered questionnaire survey to collect data. Using data drawn from 186 respondents, the research model was verified empirically in the context of Jordanian SMEs. The findings revealed that compatibility, competitive pressure, organizational readiness, the commitment of the owners/managers and government supports have exerted a significant influence on the usage of AIS. In addition, the results demonstrated that AIS usage significantly influenced the effectiveness of AIS. In addition, firm size moderated the effect of AIS usage on AIS effectiveness. The findings of the current study afford insights as to how firms might garner improved usage of an AIS to gain better firm performance and provide contributions to the small but developing stream of research examining both antecedents and impacts of IS/IT usage.

Purpose This study aims to empirically examine whether the political connection is related to risk disclosure practices. The study also seeks to contribute to the existent risk disclosure literature by investigating the moderator effect of family ownership on this relationship. Design/methodology/approach The content analysis approach was used to collect data and determine the level of risk disclosure over the non-financial Jordanian firms listed on 1Amman Stock Exchange. The sample of this study contains 376 annual reports over four years from 2014 to 2017. It used the random effect regressions to examine the hypothesis of the study. Findings The results show that politically connected companies disclose less risk information than the unconnected ones in Jordan. The results also refer that family ownership contributes in mitigating the negative effect of the political connection on the level of corporate risk. Practical implications The results have implications for regulatory institutions such as the Jordan Securities Commission to take the negative effect of political connection in their consideration and impose further regulations to monitor this board’s attribute and control politicians’ domination on the board decisions. Originality/value The current study also contributes to the body of literature by investigating the effects of the political connections on the level of risk disclosure in the financial reports. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the current study is the first to examine the effect of the political connection on the risk disclosure practices. Moreover, the study is among the first studies that examine the moderating role of family ownership on such relationship.

Although technology trends and acceptance have been considered crucial topics, limited research has examined stress-specific factors such as health anxiety in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic based on people’s attitudes toward a mobile health app using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Accordingly, this study primarily highlights the psychological determinants stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic that affect the usage of a mobile health app. The study followed a cross-sectional design and adopted a snowball sampling technique to collect the data. The findings showed a significant association between perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and event-related fear and Tabaud App intention. The relationships between Tabaud App intention and COVID-19 anxiety on Tabaud App usage were also revealed. The study found a significant association between perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. Additionally, the multi-group analysis showed that only two paths related to Tabaud App intention, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, differed significantly between males and females. Additionally, women experienced anxiety disorders more than men. The study contributes to the previous knowledge on the field by examining the psychological determinants resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic that influence using a mobile health app, namely, event-related fear and COVID-19 anxiety. The study results may help governments, health policymakers, and health organisations in Saudi Arabia contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are struggling to survive in the present competitive environment. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) technologies have great potential to facilitate firms in achieving sustainable competitive advantages and to survive in such situations. However, the adoption of ERP among Jordanian SMEs has been reported as relatively low, which, in turn, does not affect SMEs effectively. Therefore, this study aims to examine the roles of the external forces (mimetic pressure (MP), coercive pressure (CP), and normative pressure (NP)), and Environmental Uncertainty (EU) on the adoption of ERP. Through the use of institutional theory and contingency theory, this study includes the role of EU as a moderating variable in the relationships between institutional factors (MP, CP, and NP) and ERP adoption. Data were collected from small- and medium-sized enterprises operating in Jordan. A total of 741 questionnaires were distributed to the selected SMEs, of which 192 were returned and used for analysis. The empirical data were analyzed using Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The results show that MP, CP, NP, and EU have significant direct relationships with ERP adoption; however, contrary to our expectations, EU did not moderate the relationships between institutional factors and ERP adoption. These findings provide important insights for managers, researchers, and policy makers, helping them to understand the importance of ERP system adoption in enhancing firm performance. One limitation of this study is that it is based only on SMEs. Therefore, future studies can concentrate on the development of such research not only in SMEs, but also using larger organizations.

Digital Financial Inclusion (DFI) refers to efforts to make digital financial services available and affordable to all individuals and institutions, regardless of their net expense or institution size and demographic location. Despite the immense benefits of DFI and DFI-based products and services such as mobile money and payment systems, users’ acceptance is thin, limited, and disappointing in some developing countries as Jordan. Consequently, this study has investigated the factors influencing the acceptance of the mobile payment system in the Jordanian context. This study’s research model synthesizes the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) variables and extended the model with perceived financial cost as an independent variable. The research model has been empirically confirmed by fitting the model to data collected from 304 Jordanian citizens using a survey instrument. The data were analysed using Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The result has confirmed that behavioural intention to use the m-payment system is significantly and positively influenced by perceived usefulness and perceived financial cost; behavioural intention to use m-payment system was not found to be significantly and positively influenced by perceived ease of use and hence the related hypothesis was not supported. Finally, conclusions and recommendations are further discussed in the last section of this paper.