Work till your mental bound

Information and communication technology (ICT) has reshaped our lives, how we live, how we work, how we entertain ourselves. That much is true, at least for the developed and developing world.

ICT refers to everything from smartphones and laptops to software and cloud-based platforms and increasingly to the so-called Internet of Things (IoT), smart devices in the workplace our homes and places of entertainment and recreation. ICT has enabled constant connectivity and more flexible working arrangements, fundamentally altering the structure of the modern workplace.

But that connectivity may have come at a cost. One of the problems with the ubiquitous nature of ICT in our lives is that many people now have no boundary between their professional obligations and their personal lives. ICT has put many people in 24/7 contact with their work colleagues and their boss and conversely, they are always able to connect and access work-related information wherever and whenever. Research in the International Journal of Electronic Finance has now examined the social and psychological consequences of digital work environments.

The study highlights a tension that has become familiar across many sectors. On one side, digital tools have improved efficiency and expanded flexibility. Remote working arrangements, such as telecommuting and telework, allow people to integrate professional tasks into periods that were previously unproductive. Time spent commuting or waiting in public spaces can now be repurposed for work, offering workers greater autonomy over their schedules.

Yet this same flexibility introduces new pressures. The expectation that employees remain reachable anytime, anywhere has led to the rise of so-called techno-stress. Techno-stress encompasses several experiences, such as diminished control over one’s personal time, anxiety about keeping pace with technological change, and frustration when systems fail.

It is this latter issue that is highlighted in the study. Systems failure is a particularly acute trigger of techno-stress. When the very tools on which people now rely for so much malfunction, the inability to resolve the issue independently create a sense of helplessness that can affect both emotional well-being and job performance. In such cases, technology becomes less an enabler of productivity and more a source of disruption.

While digital technologies are usually adopted with the expectation of improved productivity, this research suggests that they introduce hidden costs, particularly in the form of mental health challenges. These effects can accumulate at a societal level, influencing healthcare demands, workforce sustainability, and overall economic performance.

For employers and policymakers, there is, therefore, a need for a broader understanding of technical well-being. Measures to improve system reliability, provide training, and set clearer work-life boundaries are now needed across sectors.

Dhas, H.M., Ancy, R.J., Sreejith, S. and Rani, R.K. (2026) ‘Technophobia and ICT device adaptability in financial services workers’, Int. J. Electronic Finance, Vol. 15, No. 2, pp.170–188.

Addressing age concerns

As China’s population ages at an unprecedented pace, research in the International Journal of Information and Communication Technology suggests that homes increasingly fail to meet the needs of older citizens. By 2050, almost one-third of China’s population will be over 60, meaning the government and policymakers need to focus on safety, independence, and the quality of life for hundreds of millions of people.

The researchers propose a biologically informed approach to housing design. This would take into account the predictable physical, sensory, and cognitive changes associated with aging. Conventional residential designs often fail to accommodate the realities of physical and mental changes as people age. Small, cramped bathrooms, insufficiently separated functional areas, poor lighting, and excessive noise can combine to create environments that affect comfort and safety. According to the research, a more responsive design framework must consider not only structural changes but also daily behaviour and psychological needs.

The team offers a three-pronged strategy for adapting living spaces. The first part considers spatial layout and emphasises barrier-free access and the clear separation of dynamic zones, such as kitchens and corridors, from static areas like bedrooms and lounges, to improve accessibility and reduce the risk of falls. Secondly, furniture and facility design should be optimised for ergonomics, incorporating features such as adjustable seating, well-lit bathrooms, and sanitary fixtures suitable for those with reduced strength or flexibility. The third consideration is the integration of intelligent systems. This could include health-monitoring devices, environmental controls for lighting and temperature, and security technologies, all of which are meant to help older residents without making them feel like they have too much technology.

The team argues that such design improvements have benefits that extend beyond individual households. Age-adapted housing has the potential to improve public health, reduce medical and long-term care expenditures, and sustain social cohesion by promoting autonomy and dignity among the elderly.

Zhou, Y. and Fu, S. (2026) ‘Upgrading path of aging friendly functional layout in residential spaces based on biology and computer software engineering’, Int. J. Information and Communication Technology, Vol. 27, No. 28, pp.60–72.

A borrower and a lender be

Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, a form of finance that allows individuals and small businesses to borrow directly from each other through online platforms, has attracted growing academic and policy attention in recent years, especially as it reshapes traditional credit markets. An analysis in the International Journal of Accounting and Finance has looked at more than three decades of research in this area. The results suggest that while the field has expanded rapidly, there are many gaps in our understanding of P2P lending that could have implications for international financial systems.

The researchers examined more than 500 hundred scholarly articles published between 1990 and 2023. The analysis charts how interest in P2P lending has changed as financial technology, or FinTech, itself has developed over that period. By removing conventional intermediaries such as banks, these platforms not only reduce costs and accelerate loan processing but also broaden access to credit. P2P lending now serves borrowers globally who lack access to conventional financial systems. This opens up opportunities for many previously disenfranchised parts of society worldwide.

There has been a marked increase in research into P2P lending in recent years. This suggests that it is growing in complexity and economic relevance. Most of the research focuses on loan default risk and on investor behaviour, looking at the psychological factors influencing financial decisions and trust on both sides.

The emphasis on trust is central to the P2P lending model. Unlike traditional banking, where institutions act as gatekeepers and risk assessors, P2P lending relies almost entirely on digital signals of reliability and user-generated information. There are, however, geographical imbalances in the research, with most of it having been conducted in Europe and the USA, despite rapid growth of P2P lending in emerging markets. This issue suggests that our current understanding may not fully explain how these platforms operate in different regulatory environments or cultural contexts, where financial behaviour and institutional trust can be very different.

The gaps in the research limit the ability of policymakers and practitioners to design effective frameworks. The absence of regulation can expose participants to fraud or default. Nevertheless, in emerging economies, where access to traditional banking is often limited, P2P lending has the potential to expand financial inclusion by offering credit to small businesses and individuals without established credit histories.

Ritika and Khanna, A. (2025) ‘Unveiling the dynamics of peer-to-peer lending: a bibliometric analysis’, Int. J. Accounting and Finance, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp.145–184.

Recommend-a-course

Research in the International Journal of Computational Systems Engineering introduces a hybrid recommendation model that could help with one of the common challenges facing universities offering online courses. How to recommend the most appropriate course for prospective students.

The approach uses Naive Bayes classification and collaborative filtering to improve accuracy and personalised course suggestions. This, the researchers suggest, could ultimately enhance the learning experience for students.

Online course recommendation systems have long struggled with issues such as the “cold start” problem, data sparsity, and inadequate personalisation. The “cold start” problem occurs when a recommendation system lacks sufficient historical data about new users or courses, making it difficult to provide relevant suggestions. Data sparsity, on the other hand, refers to the limited amount of data available for each course, which can hinder the system’s ability to capture students’ preferences. Additionally, inadequate personalisation leads to generalised recommendations that may not match the unique needs of individual students, resulting in a less effective user experience.

The hybrid model discussed in IJCSE could resolve these issues. By using Naive Bayes classification, it can predict the likelihood that a particular course aligns with the interests of a given student based on course features. Collaborative filtering then examines patterns in student character and identifies similar users to recommend courses based on what others with similar learning habits have chosen.

The system also adds a dynamic weight adjustment feature that adjusts the model’s recommendations depending on whether a student is a new user or an experienced one. This mechanism improves the precision and diversity of the suggestions, ensuring that the system remains useful for all types of students.

The team tested the system with data from 25,000 students and 1,000 courses. Compared to traditional methods, it demonstrated a 12% improvement in Precision@10 (the percentage of relevant courses within the top 10 recommendations) and a 10.5% improvement in Recall@10 (the percentage of relevant courses among the top 10 recommendations). Most notably, in cold start scenarios, the hybrid model significantly outperformed deep neural networks. Even with a data sparsity of 98%, the hybrid model’s accuracy fell at half the rate of traditional algorithms.

Chen, Z. and He, M. (2026) ‘Research on integrating naive Bayes and collaborative filtering into an online-course recommendation model for universities’, Int. J. Computational Systems Engineering, Vol. 10, No. 6, pp.12–21.

Teach your children well

A study of junior high schools in Indonesia has found that educational leadership influences how well they cultivate entrepreneurial skills in their students. Indeed, these kind be improved by encouraging innovation from the top and by fostering collaborative environments in which students, teachers, and communities all work together to shape educational outcomes. The details are reported in the International Journal of Business Innovation and Research.

The research surveyed 350 schools and examined the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and entrepreneurial performance. Entrepreneurial leadership refers to a style of management that prioritises vision, innovation, and the mobilisation of others. In schools, this translates into principals and senior staff who support experimentation in teaching, promote creative problem-solving, and encourage initiative among both students and educators.

Entrepreneurial performance, on the other hand, is defined more broadly than business creation. It includes the ability of a school to generate innovative activities, equip students with problem-solving and adaptive skills, and contribute to longer-term socio-economic objectives such as employability and resilience in changing labour markets.

The study’s main finding is that leadership alone is not the sole driver of such outcomes in educations. Rather, its effects are mediated by what researchers describe as value co-creation. This term derives from service management theory and refers to a process in which value is produced through interaction, rather than being delivered unilaterally by an organisation to passive recipients. In the educational context, this implies a shift away from viewing teaching as a one-way transfer of knowledge, towards a model in which students, teachers, school leaders, and other stakeholders work together to design appropriate learning experiences and solve problems.

In countries where entrepreneurship plays a significant role in economic development, schools are increasingly seen as a foundation for developing the entrepreneurial mindset in students. The research indicates that policy initiatives which focus solely on embedding entrepreneurship in the curriculum may not work as well as those that also improve and guide leadership practices and institutional culture.

Indira, S.S., Sasmoko S., Bandur, A. and Pradipto, Y.D. (2026) ‘Business perspectives on value cocreation as a mediator for entrepreneurial performance in educational contexts’, Int. J. Business Innovation and Research, Vol. 39, No. 8, pp.1–24.

Adapting to AI adoption

Research in the International Journal of Business Information Systems suggests that the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is remarkably uneven across Italian firms. While some may have made a deliberate choice not to use AI, of the many that are planning to use it, some still lack the organisational structures needed to deploy the technology effectively.

This is one of the first systematic studies of AI adoption in Italy. It found that there are lots of early innovators eagerly integrating AI into their operations, but others are moving more cautiously and remain in the preliminary stages of exploration. This uneven uptake is seen elsewhere and reflects a broader international pattern, as businesses look for AI opportunities but struggle with the complexities of this rapidly evolving area of computing.

Despite the growing interest and investment in, specifically, generative AI, this research shows that many firms do not have a structured approach to the technology. The researchers propose an “AI Readiness Level” (AIRL) framework that could help organisations develop their AI strategy.

This notion of readiness is not just about technical capability, it takes into account the quality of a company’s data infrastructure, the availability of skilled personnel, leadership support, and external factors such as regulatory pressures or market competition. AIRL provides a model of the progressive stages of development, from initial awareness to full operational integration.

The team points out that firms that have adopted AI have reported improvements in operational efficiency, enhanced customer engagement, and more informed decision-making through predictive analytics. The research suggests that adopting AI is less a matter of installing new software than carrying out organisational transformation. Companies need to align their technological capabilities with workforce skills, management strategies, and governance structures, the authors explain. Those that fail to do so risk falling behind competitors that are already using this technology to their advantage.

Garlatti Costa, G., Pugliese, R. and Venier, F. (2026) ‘Exploring artificial intelligence adoption among Italian firms: the AI readiness level’, Int. J. Business Information Systems, Vol. 51, No. 7, pp.1–22.

Greening the supply chain

Research in the International Journal of Environment and Pollution has looked at carbon-reduction strategies across supply chains. The findings suggest that uncertainty in consumer demand need not preclude environmental gains.

The team looked at a four-stage supply chain, encompassing suppliers, producers, retailers, and consumers. They used a structured economic model, the Stackelberg game, to examine the dominant “actor”, in this case the manufacturer. The dominant actor makes the initial decisions, and the other players adjust their behaviour accordingly. Such a sequential decision-making framework models the way many industries function, where firms exert influence over pricing and production conditions downstream.

In contrast to other studies that have isolated individual parts of the supply chain, this latest study adopts a system-wide perspective. In it, retailers are not merely intermediaries but are active participants shaping demand. As such, retailers then influence consumer behaviour through pricing strategies and promotional efforts, such as emphasising low-carbon products or highlighting environmental credentials. This affects consumer decisions about the price of “greener” goods, and this then feeds back into the incentives at the manufacturer level for reducing emissions and pollution earlier in production.

The challenge in green manufacturing is demand uncertainty. Firms somehow need to be able to predict how positively consumers would respond to those greener, low-carbon products. This uncertainty complicates investment decisions. The research indicates that supply chain participants can still achieve what economists term Pareto improvements, where at least one party benefits without leaving others worse off, through coordinated adjustments in pricing, subsidies and emission reduction efforts.

The results reveal a set of trade-offs. Subsidies aimed at boosting retail promotion tend to increase marketing efforts and allow retailers to charge higher prices, reflecting stronger consumer demand for environmentally friendly products. However, these same measures weaken the producers’ incentives to invest in their own emission reductions and may lead to higher wholesale prices. The overall effect, however, is emission reduction across the supply chain, suggesting that policies or strategies that appear inefficient at the manufacturer level may still deliver environmental benefits.

Shen, Q. and Hou, X. (2026) ‘Carbon reduction coordination and pricing strategy of a four-level supply chain under demand uncertainty’, Int. J. Environment and Pollution, Vol. 76, No. 5, pp.36–57.