Open Government Data (OGD) initiatives can deliver many cultural and institutional benefits. This is why many governments are trying to establish an OGD ecosystem. However, although many countries have made good progress in doing so, some face significant challenges. In such cases, country-specific studies can prove valuable in understanding not only the current situation, but also in defining the obstacles to progress. As far as the authors of this paper can determine, this study is the first to examine the benefits of, and barriers to, implementation of the OGD initiative Saudi Arabia. The study conducts and analyses interviews with Saudi Arabian government officials in both leadership and technical positions, in order to obtain an informed view of the OGD initiative in Saudi. The study contributes to the existing knowledge base by identifying the main benefits of the Saudi Arabian Open Government Initiative and the barriers to its implementation.

Over the past few decades, there have been tremendous increase in technology advancement and the significance of this in the field of education cannot be overemphasised. The adoption and use of E-learning in studying EFL, in particular, is one such areas that has experienced such fast-paced development for some time now. As a result, the government all over the world are committing a lot of resources to keep up with this technology advancement. In this light, the government of Saudi Arabia through its Ministry of Education has recently made commitment, both as the practical and policy levels, with the hope to also benefit from using E-learning in studying EFL in Saudi Schools. However, little is known about the perception of students and teachers regarding the role of E-learning is studying EFL in the Saudi context. In an attempt to contribute to this research base, this paper draws on an empirical investigation using group interviews with students and teachers in order to gain insight into their perception about the role of E-learning in studying EFL in Saudi Arabia. The findings are presented and discussed in four thematic areas: promoting key learning skills, independent learning, flexible learning and interactive learning. The paper also highlights the limitations of the research and concludes by making a number of recommendations.

There is limited evidence of the effects of culture and context on student readiness for e-learning, and how these might interact with gender. This study addresses this gap by studying the effect of culture and context on the readiness of high school students to use e-learning in a unique setting: an education system in which male and female students are educated separately. A mixed methods research approach was adopted because of our emphasis on the subjective aspect of the concept of readiness. Findings demonstrate that there are clear differences between the genders, but that these must be interpreted carefully in this cultural setting. There is scope for further research that investigates this gender divide in other e-learning contexts, including those where male and female students learn together and those where other cultural factors may influence student readiness to use e-learning.

Knowledge sharing positively and significantly improves academics’ research, instruction and community service. The study of knowledge sharing in Saudi higher education is limited and offers little guidance to administrators, as well as faculty on how to capitalize on knowledge sharing and utilize it to their own and organizations’ benefits. This research presents findings from an original quantitative study testing a structural equation model linking social cognitive theory to knowledge sharing collection and donation measured by validated scales from the extant literature. Community characteristics including altruism and reputation carry significant positive effects on knowledge sharing collection and donation. Similarly, personal outcomes expectations possess a moderate positive effect on knowledge sharing collection and donation. Self-efficacy in knowledge sharing emerged as an important predictor of knowledge sharing activities among Saudi academics. The findings suggest the need for developing professional training seminars on using social media for knowledge sharing in formal departmental and college settings. Further, the results confirm the relevance of social cognitive theory for the study of knowledge sharing. This creates the need for Saudi universities to invest in mentorship programs using digital platforms where personal and community outcomes’ expectations are likely to improve among academics thereby increasing knowledge sharing activity.

The concept of open banking has emerged only recently within the fintech sector, and it is rapidly becoming popular in many regions across the world. Currently, there are very few studies on the relationship between customer experience and intention to use fintech apps, none of which focus on open banking. This relationship is significant for a number of reasons, one of which is the emerging importance of the connection between fintech and an environmentally sustainable economy. This paper seeks to add to our understanding of the factors that shape the customer experience and that determine loyalty levels toward open banking brands and apps. We propose a model in which a number (six) of affective and cognitive factors influence customer experience, which ultimately determines loyalty intention. The model is tested using data collected via a quantitative (survey) methodology involving open banking users in Saudi Arabia. The results show that customer experience is affected by all of the proposed factors (ease of use, perceived value, quality of support, reliability, perceived risk and ability to innovate). These factors, in turn, actively influence the level of customer loyalty. The study contributes to the current literature by identifying the various cognitive and affective determinants of customer experience, which therefore influences loyalty intention in open banking, and provides valuable insights into how both new and established brands should integrate customer experience into promotional and development strategies.

Over recent years, social commerce has evolved into a powerful segment of e-commerce, creating new opportunities for brands of all types and sizes. However, if social commerce is to continue to grow and deliver the many benefits it promises, it must address a number of key challenges, including privacy, trust, and ethical concerns. This paper explores the extent to which privacy issues affect the attitudes and behaviours of social media platform (SMP) users towards social commerce, and investigates whether these attitudes and behaviours are a function of cultural context. The approach adopted for the research is a two-stage method, which initially uses semi-structured interviews of social-commerce users to identify their key privacy concerns. These concerns are then used to develop, using the theory of reasoned action (TRA), a structural model that facilitates the formation of hypotheses which relate users’ attitudes to privacy to subsequent behaviour. This model is assessed by analysing the responses to a questionnaire from a large sample of participants. This allows us to evaluate the general accuracy of the model and to compare culturally distinct subgroups (Saudi vs. Chinese) using partial least-squares analysis. Results show good support for all of our hypotheses and indicate that there are clear cultural effects. One of these effects is the inadequacy of privacy policies implemented by SMP providers, regarding culturally specific ethical concerns.

This paper undertakes to explore the perceptions of academics regarding information sharing on social network sites (SNS) and related privacy issues. Specifically, the paper was designed targeting academics using SNS to disseminate information and/or for other academic purposes. The paper is based on a mixed method research, the exploratory stage consequential for the confirmatory stage of the research. The findings of the research highly the complex relationships between personal information collection and usage (PICU) factors, personal information control (PIC) factors, and awareness of the effectiveness of privacy policy (AEPP) factors. This culminates in the formulation of a research model based on the theory of reasoned action. Given that the research took place within a context where gender is significant in shaping the worldview of the individual, groups, and society, the paper also seeks to contribute to the existing gender-based narrative on information sharing and privacy issues on SNS, mainly demystifying gender-based stereotypes.

Information sharing via social networking systems (SNS) is a common practice among academics, as well as others, that brings substantial benefits. At the same time, privacy concerns are widespread among SNS users, which may tend to inhibit their maximising the benefit from using the systems. This paper investigates the proposition that SNS user attitudes and behaviour are affected by privacy concerns, and that the effects are subject to significant cultural factors. A broad assessment of the literature provides the context for the study. Working in the context of Saudi Arabia, we apply a mixed-methods approach beginning with in-depth interviews, exposing in detail a range of views and concerns about privacy and SNS use, also allowing us to identify three key factors that bear on SNS usage and users’ concerns. Analysis of these factors in the light of the “theory of reasoned action” derives a structural model predicting several hypotheses relating the factors and users’ attitudes and behaviour. We assess the model through development of a questionnaire, administered to a large pool of academic participants, that allows us to examine how the model responds in general, and via multigroup partial least squares analyses, differentially to gender and to culturally distinct (Arab vs. non-Arab) constituents of the participant group. Results show good support for the hypotheses and clear gender and culture effects. Picking up issues from the interviews, discussion focuses on users’ views about SNS providers’ privacy policies and their inadequacy regarding culturally specific ethical concerns. We argue that these views may reflect different regulatory environments in combination with other cultural factors.