SACM - United Kingdom
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Item Restricted Adoption of AI Itinerary Planners by Young Adults: A UTAUT Study(Bournemouth University, 2025) Alshehri, Omar; Buhalis, DimitriosThe rapid integration of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the tourism sector has created powerful new tools for travel planning. This study investigates the key determinants influencing the adoption of AI itinerary planners among young adults (aged 18-28), a critical demographic of digital natives. The research aim was to develop and empirically validate an extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model, integrating the core theory with the constructs of trust, personalisation, and perceived risk. A quantitative, cross-sectional online survey was administered, yielding a final sample of 228 valid responses, which were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The findings reveal that Performance Expectancy is the most powerful predictor of behavioural intention, strongly affirming that perceived utility is the primary driver of adoption. Social Influence and Trust also emerged as significant positive determinants. Crucially, the model demonstrated that Perceived Personalisation is a key antecedent, strongly and positively influencing both Performance Expectancy and Trust. In contrast, Effort Expectancy and Facilitating Conditions were found to be non-significant, suggesting these are baseline expectations rather than drivers for this technologically fluent cohort. While Perceived Risk did not directly deter adoption intention, it significantly eroded user trust. The validated model demonstrated substantial explanatory power, accounting for 76.2% of the variance in behavioural intention. The study concludes that young adults' adoption of AI planners is a pragmatic decision driven by utility, social proof, and a foundation of trust cultivated through a personalised user experience. These findings recommend that industry practitioners focus on enhancing personalisation algorithms and transparency to build trust and leverage social influence in marketing efforts to encourage adoption.25 0Item Restricted Governance and Development of SMEs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Public Policy and the Role of Multiple Government Actors(The University of Manchester, 2025) Alfageer, Mansoor; Hossain, FarhadSmall and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are key drivers of economic growth, job creation, and social development. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, SMEs account for 99% of all businesses, yet their contribution remains modest relative to international benchmarks and face persistent growth obstacles. This research aims to explore how public policy, public governance and regulatory frameworks, implemented by multiple government actors (MGAs), affect the development, contribution and sustainability of SMEs in Saudi Arabia. It has three main objectives: to explore the factors that influence SME growth, development and contribution; to explore how government policies shape SME resilience and market adaptation amid economic, social and institutional transformations; and to assess the role of MGAs in addressing SME development challenges and identifying governance gaps in greater depth for improvement. Adopting a multidisciplinary public policy and management approach, the study draws on theoretical governance perspectives and SME development concepts to explain how policy design, implementation and coordination among MGAs shape SME outcomes in Saudi Arabia. A qualitative case study approach was adopted. Data were collected in Riyadh through semi-structured interviews with 45 participants recruited via snowball sampling. Participants included senior government officials as key informants, SME owners, and business executives and professionals, who shared their perceptions of public policy and SME development, particularly after the launch of national transformation in 2016. Data were coded and thematically analysed in alignment with the research questions. Findings reveal that the national transformation since the launch of Vision 2030 has reshaped the macro-environment affecting SMEs. Requirements to nationalise employment, comply with a rapidly evolving regulatory framework, and meet taxation and a variety of fees collected by MGAs have increased SMEs’ sensitivity to policy design and implementation and have raised the costs and burdens of doing business. Fragmented governance, limited institutional coordination, communication gaps, limited collaborative governance and SME engagement, rising compliance requirements, shifting market dynamics, limited resources, and skills gaps across public and private sectors increase risks to SMEs’ survival and growth, underscoring the role of MGAs in closing governance and performance gaps identified for improved developmental outcomes. Conceptually, the study shows how MGA governance design, coordination and enforcement, under central state steering, shape SME development and position SMEs as policy recipients and instruments of state reform. Empirically, it links lived implementation to outcomes within a contemporary administrative development context, offering original qualitative evidence from an embedded case study that informs governance and management scholarship. Implications reveal that policy should prioritise coordination, predictability and communication, a unified e-government system, transparent enforcement and accountability, SME engagement, a long-term set of defined policies that enable SMEs’ strategic planning, and targeted support guided by outcome-oriented indicators. SMEs should embed compliance readiness, manage costs and regulatory burdens, engage through formal channels, build supply-chain partnerships, strengthen digital capability, and adopt formal governance practices. For sustainable finance, promote legal and financial literacy and encourage investment in promising businesses as an alternative to starting a new venture while remaining in professional employment. Within this macro case limitation, recommended directions include policy-specific and sectoral analyses by firm size, comparative regional work, and longitudinal assessment of regulatory and performance-management effects on development outcomes.7 0Item Restricted NG THE ROLE OF SUPPLY-SIDE UNCERTAINTY ON THE AIRPLANE SPARE PARTS SUPPLY CHAIN: A CASE STUDY ON SAUDI AIRLINES(University of Salford, 2025) Alshamlani, Musaad; Orji, FavourAbstract The aviation industry is a vital component of global connectivity and trade, yet its dependence on timely spare parts supply exposes it to significant operational risks. Despite the importance of effective spare parts supply chain management, limited research has examined supply-side uncertainty in the aviation sector within region-specific contexts such as Saudi Arabia. This study investigates how supply-side uncertainties affect spare parts supply chain efficiency in Saudi Airlines and evaluates current mitigation and improvement strategies. The research adopted a quantitative approach, guided by data collected from 171 employees engaged in spare parts management through a structured survey. The analysis, which included regression and correlation, revealed that lead-time variability is the most significant driver of inefficiency, causing delays and cost overruns. Moreover, mitigation practices—such as supplier diversification, agility enhancement, predictive tools, and decentralized procurement—emerged as key strategies to improve resilience. The study concludes by proposing a proactive, data-driven framework to optimize spare parts management and reduce risks in Saudi Arabia’s aviation supply chain. Keywords: Supply chain risk management, aviation industry, spare parts, Saudi Airlines, supply-side uncertainty, mitigation strategies.7 0Item Restricted The Role of Renewable Energy Investments in Driving Sustainable Economic Development(Bournemouth University, 2025) Almatrudi, Abdullah Abdulrahman; Howard-Jones, PeterThis dissertation explores the role of renewable energy investments in driving sustainable economic development in the United Kingdom. The research begins from a simple idea: Clean energy is not only concerned with environmental protection; it also advances social welfare and economic growth. The study aims to examine how such investments influence GDP growth, job creation, regional equity, innovation, and systemic resilience. A mixed-methods case study approach was adopted. Quantitative analysis of national indicators (GDP, productivity, jobs, patents, and foreign investment) was combined with qualitative review of government policies, strategy papers, and data from reliable organisations. This balance allows a broad and deep understanding. The findings show that investments in renewable energy have grown strongly since 2010, with offshore wind leading the way. These investments supported GDP, improved labour productivity, and created more than 247,000 jobs by 2023. They also contributed to innovation and made the UK less dependent on fossil fuel imports. However, there are challenges: high upfront costs, policy uncertainty, and grid limitations. The dissertation concludes that renewable energy investments are not only necessary for achieving climate goals but also a strategic pathway for inclusive and sustainable economic growth.12 0Item Restricted Gen Z’s Trust and Privacy Concerns in Augmented Reality Retail Experiences: A Qualitative Study(University of Westminster, 2025) Alqarni, Maha; Cha, JonghyukThis study investigates Generation Z's perceptions of trust and privacy in augmented reality (AR) retail experiences. It aims to uncover how privacy concerns and trust factors influence this demographic’s engagement with AR technologies in shopping contexts. Using a qualitative, inductive approach, data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with Gen Z participants based in the United Kingdom, all actively engaged with retail AR features. The research was conducted due to the increasing adoption of AR in retail settings, along with growing concerns about the invasive nature of personal data collection practices inherent in AR technologies. While Gen Z is a highly enthusiastic and digitally fluent user group for AR applications and the largest demographic using AR for shopping, a significant gap remains in understanding their specific privacy and trust issues. Findings from thematic analysis revealed four major themes: Privacy as a Pragmatic Trade-off, Resigned Acceptance, Informed but Indifferent Awareness, and Importance of Brands’ Reputation. Participants demonstrated a clear understanding of the extent of data collection, but were often willing to exchange personal information for personalized and convenient retail experiences. Although there was considerable discomfort around surveillance and the lack of transparency in privacy policies, many participants expressed a resigned acceptance of data collection as unavoidable. Others expressed informed but indifferent awareness supported by the normalization of privacy concerns and the influence of people using AR in shopping. Brand reputation emerged as a critical determinant of trust and the only factor that discourages Gen Z from using AR in retail, with participants strongly preferring established, globally recognized brands, indicating skepticism toward lesser-known entities. This research contributes valuable insights for retail businesses and policymakers, emphasizing the need for clearer, more accessible privacy communications and highlighting the crucial role of brand credibility in fostering user trust. It underscores the importance of understanding Gen Z's nuanced attitudes towards privacy and trust to design ethically sound and user-centric AR retail experiences.7 0Item Restricted Advancing narcolepsy diagnosis: Leveraging machine learning to identify novel neuro-biomarkers(Saudi Digital Library, 2024) Orkouby, Hadir; Bartsch, UllrichNarcolepsy is a rare neurological disorder with a well-identified pathophysiology that manifests as a sudden onset of sleep during wake behaviour. The current diagnostic pathways for narcolepsy involve complex assessments of sleep neurophysiology, including polysomnography and the multiple sleep latency (MSLT) test. These are cumbersome and work-intensive, and with limited resources within the NHS, this has led to increased waiting times for diagnosis and treatment of narcolepsy. This project harnessed the power of digital neuro-biomarkers and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to develop novel diagnostic markers for narcolepsy. Leveraging an open-source dataset of labelled archival polysomnography (PSG) recordings, including electroencephalography (EEG), I created a data analysis and classification pipeline to enhance diagnostic decision-making in clinical settings. This pipeline combines comprehensive data preprocessing and feature extraction with XGBoost and Random Forest (RF) classification models. The feature extraction process included selected time- series analysis features, spectral frequency ratios, cross-frequency coupling and moment-based statistical features of Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs) derived from empirical mode decomposition (EMD). The RF classifier emerged as the best model, achieving an accuracy of 82.5%, with a specificity of 82.5% and a sensitivity of 92.86%, by combining and averaging these feature sets and incorporating sleep stage labels during model training. These results underscore the potential of a novel approach using single-channel sleep EEG data from wearable devices. This innovative method simplifies the lengthy and costly pathway for narcolepsy diagnosis and also paves the way for developing new tools to diagnose sleep disorders automatically in non-clinical environments.7 0Item Restricted A critical analysis of AstraZeneca PLC shareholder wealth creation in the five-year period from Between 2020–2024(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Alfozan, Abdulrahman; Manirul, IslamThe aim of this project is to critically analyse AstraZeneca PLC’s shareholder wealth creation (SWC) between 2020 and 2024 through theoretical and financial evaluation. The study applies agency theory, stakeholder theory, and dividend policy to examine AstraZeneca’s ability to balance financial performance, strategic growth, and societal responsibilities in delivering sustainable value to shareholders. AstraZeneca enjoys strong industry positioning within the UK pharmaceutical sector, underpinned by innovation, acquisitions and sustainability initiatives such as the Ambition Zero Carbon programme. Analysis of share price performance revealed growth of over 80% between 2020 and 2024, consistently outperforming the FTSE 100, FTSE 350 Pharmaceuticals and Biotech, and peers including GSK and Hikma, based on Bloomberg data. This growth highlights robust governance, strategic alignment and market confidence, consistent with agency theory principles. Dividend evaluation confirmed AstraZeneca’s progressive policy, with stability and modest growth resulting in $3.10 per share in 2024, as reported in company annual reports. This approach reassured investors during volatile periods while preserving reinvestment capacity for R&D and acquisitions, reflecting the balance between signalling strength and sustaining innovation. Financial statement and ratio analyses, conducted using FAME and AstraZeneca’s audited reports through comparative index analysis, common-size statements, and peer benchmarking, further evidenced resilience: revenues rose steadily, gross margins exceeded 75%, and gearing reduced from 212% in 2020 to 92% in 2024, reinforcing financial discipline and long-term sustainability. The implications of these findings are notable for both corporate governance and investment practice. AstraZeneca demonstrates that shareholder wealth creation is achievable through a blended strategy that balances short-term investor returns with long-term reinvestment in innovation, sustainability, and global expansion. This integration of financial strength and ESG commitments positions AstraZeneca as a resilient, shareholder-oriented firm with strong capacity for continued value creation.2 0Item Restricted The Role of Blockchain Technology in Enhancing Transparency in Government Procurements in Saudi Arabia(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Baajajah, khadijh; Christidis, ArisPublic procurement is one of the most legally significant spheres of state activity. It accounts for a substantial proportion of public expenditure and serves as a central mechanism through which governments deliver goods, services and infrastructure. Beyond its fiscal importance, procurement is also a governance tool, as it directly shapes public trust in state institutions and serves as a benchmark for accountability and integrity. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, procurement reform has been elevated as a cornerstone of Vision 2030, the country’s national strategy for socioeconomic transformation. A well-functioning procurement system is considered essential to achieving transparency, accountability and efficiency in public resource management, thereby supporting both fiscal discipline and governance modernisation. Within this framework, the Government Tenders and Procurement Law (GTPL) provides the principal legal architecture for regulating tendering and contracting. Its objectives include securing value for public funds, promoting fair competition, ensuring equal opportunities for bidders and embedding transparency across all stages of the procurement cycle. Transparency, in particular, is the decisive principle: it is recognised internationally – through instruments such as the World Trade Organization Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA), the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on Public Procurement and the recommendations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) – as the primary safeguard against corruption and the precondition for fair competition and accountability. Weaknesses in transparency create systemic vulnerabilities that can be exploited for corrupt practices, a challenge Saudi Arabia has sought to address through legislative reform and international cooperation. However, despite these advances, Saudi procurement processes continue to face practical and institutional challenges. Gaps in consistency, oversight and accessibility risk undermining fiscal stability and public trust. These concerns are especially acute given their implications for alignment with Vision 2030, which expressly prioritises procurement reform, digitalisation and integrity in public administration as foundations of sustainable development. Against this backdrop, the integration of blockchain technology has emerged as a potential mechanism for strengthening transparency in procurement. It is increasingly viewed as a tool that could mitigate entrenched risks and foster greater accountability. Yet, the technology also raises unresolved legal questions that require careful regulatory consideration. Therefore, this research examines the impact of blockchain technology on enhancing transparency within Saudi Arabia’s procurement framework by analysing the GTPL and related regulations and then identifying structural gaps and practical vulnerabilities and assessing how blockchain may be leveraged to address them. The paper further argues that Saudi Arabia’s digital maturity and reform trajectory position the Kingdom as a particularly significant case study for exploring how emerging technologies may be embedded into procurement law and governance. To the best of the researcher’s knowledge, no dedicated legal scholarship in Saudi Arabia has examined blockchain technology’s potential to enhance transparency within the framework of the GTPL. Although the principles of procurement transparency and integrity have been extensively addressed in the international literature and blockchain’s application to procurement has been analysed in other jurisdictions, Saudi legal research has not yet explored this intersection. Thus, the current study contributes to domestic legal discourse by situating blockchain within the Kingdom’s procurement framework while also adding to comparative scholarship by examining an under-researched jurisdiction and offering insights relevant to both national reform and the broader development of international procurement governance.8 0Item Restricted PYROLYSIS AND PYROLYSIS-CATALYSIS OF WASTE PLASTICS AND WASTE TIRES TO PRODUCE HIGH VALUE FUELS AND CHEMICALS(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Alzahrani, Noof Edan; Williams, PaulThis research focuses on the pyrolysis of waste plastic, waste tire, and 1:1 mixtures of tire and plastics using a fixed-bed reactor with the aim of determining the influence of co-pyrolysis on the yield and composition of the product oils and gases. The liquid oil produced from the pyrolysis of tires and polystyrene (PS) was mostly composed of aromatic compounds, such as BTEX, refers to benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes; and PAHs refers to for example, naphthalene, anthracene, phenanthrene, pyrene and fluorene and their derivatives. The liquid oil formed from the pyrolysis of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and low density polyethylene (LDPE) was mostly waxes of high molecular weight consisting of aliphatic compounds, composed of a series of alkanes, alkenes, and alkadienes. Polypropylene (PP) produced more alicyclic compounds, such as methyl-cyclohexane. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) pyrolysis oil consisted of compounds such as xylene and styrene but was mainly composed of oxygenated compounds, such as benzoic acid. Co-pyrolysis of 1:1 mixtures of tires and individual plastics involved interaction, resulting in significantly higher yields of gas than expected for all the plastic mixtures. The oil produced from the co-pyrolysis of the tire with polyalkene plastics showed interaction between the polymer pyrolysis products, resulting in higher yields of aliphatic compounds and lower yields for BTEX, PAHs, alicyclic, and aromatic compounds. The study also investigated the pyrolysis-catalysis of waste plastic, waste tire, and a 1:1 mixture of the two materials using a two-stage fixed-bed reactor. ZSM-5 is used as a catalyst to investigate the influence on product distribution and composition of gases and oils. The results showed that pyrolysis-catalysis of tire over ZSM-5 reduced oil yield from 54.83 wt.% in thermal pyrolysis to 37.30 wt.% in pyrolysis-catalysis, with an increase in gas yield from 8.69 wt.% in thermal pyrolysis to 24.65 wt.% in pyrolysis-catalysis. Pyrolysis-catalysis of HDPE, LDPE, PP, and PS, also showed increased gas yields, mainly consisting of hydrocarbons (C1-C4), while decreasing oil production. PS produced the lowest gas yield, while PET produced the highest, with CO and CO2 being the main gases generated. The pyrolysis of individual tire and plastic over ZSM-5 produced valuable chemicals such as benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, xylenes, and styrene. The efficiency of ZSM-5 to minimize the heavy aliphatic fraction was high, on the other hand, the ZSM-5 with low deactivation by coke deposition and a high selectivity to produce light olefins. The co-pyrolysis-catalysis of the tire and plastics with the ZSM-5 catalyst showed interaction between the tire and plastics which changed the composition of the product oils and gases over what would be expected from mere addition. Plastics co-pyrolysed with tire and the presence of ZSM-5 catalyst promoted the high production of the aromatic content, particularly BTEX compounds at the expense of aliphatic content. Tire/HDPE, Tire/LDPE, and Tire/PP mixtures showed a reduction in aliphatic and heavy molecular weight compounds when co-pyrolysed with tires, and the presence of a ZSM-5 catalyst increased the production of aromatic content, particularly BTEX compounds. Tire/PS mixture produced aromatic compounds, and the addition of the ZSM-5 catalyst increased aromatics at the expense of styrene. Tire/PET mixture produced BTEX and aromatic (refers to benzene derivatives, biphenyls, limonene, terphenyl, and indene compounds) due to the selectively of ZSM-5 that promotes the decarboxylation of the oxygenated compounds, and it gave high gas yields of mainly CO and hydrocarbons. The pyrolysis-catalysis of waste plastic, waste tire, and 1:1 mixtures of tire and plastics was conducted over the MCM-41/ZSM-5 catalyst layer to determine the influence of two catalysts in series on oil and gas composition. The MCM-41 with a higher pore size was followed by ZSM-5 with a smaller pore size. The pyrolysiscatalysis process optimizes the conversion of plastic pyrolysis products to low molecular weight hydrocarbon fuels and chemicals. The production of gases during catalytic pyrolysis increases at the expense of oil yields, with oil yields of 39.50, 57.25, 53.50, 58.50, 77.00, and 36.75 wt.% for Tire, HDPE, LDPE, PP, PS, and PET, respectively. The highest hydrocarbon gases were produced from the tire and plastics while PET produced the highest gas yield with more CO and CO2. Applying the two stages MCM-41/ZSM-5 has the advantage in the cracking of HDPE, LDPE, and PP. The primary products can pass through the large pores of MCM-41, then followed by ZSM-5 with (strong acidic sites and small pores) that promote the formation of light aromatic hydrocarbons and increased the production of BTEX. The co-pyrolysis of tire/plastic mixtures over MCM-41/ZSM-5 catalyst in series showed an increase in gas yields compared to the individual tire and plastics results. The major influence of the co-pyrolysis was the reduction of paraffin and olefin compounds. According to literature, the high cracking of long chain polyolefins and the interaction between hydrocarbon radicals produced from tire rubber and the radicals produced from the thermal decomposition of PE and PP caused the reduction of both aliphatic and alicyclic contents in the mixtures of Tire/HDPE, Tire/LDPE, and Tire/PP. Tire/PET showed negative values of interaction for the oxygenated compounds.11 0Item Restricted Properties of a Novel Brominated Radiopaque Dental Resin with Ethyl 4-(dimethylamino) Benzoate as a Photoinitiator(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Aleydan, Aljawharah; Hasan, Mahmoud; Patel, Mangala; Wong, FerrantiBackground: Resin infiltration effectively arrests early carious lesions but lacks radiopacity, complicating radiographic assessment. This study investigated a novel brominated dental resin using ethyl 4-(dimethylamino) benzoate (EDAB) as photoinitiator. Aim: To evaluate the characteristics of a new brominated infiltrant (BrM-BI) with EDAB, examining degree of conversion (DC%), radiopacity, water absorption and solubility compared to non-brominated basic infiltrant (BI). Method: Basic infiltrant (20% UDMA, 80% TEGDMA) was prepared with 1% photoinitiator (0.5% camphorquinone, 0.5% EDAB). For BrM-BI, 2,3-dibromobutane-1,4-diyl bis(2-methylacrylate) was incorporated (1:1 ratio). DC% was assessed using FTIR spectroscopy. Radiopacity was compared to aluminium step-wedge. Water absorption and solubility were evaluated through extended testing (66 days). Results: BrM-BI showed significantly lower DC% (62.99±3.22%) than BI (74.37±1.84%). Average radiopacity of BrM-BI was 1.79±0.18mm Al, exceeding dentine (1mm Al). Water absorption behaviour differed markedly between materials; BI reached equilibrium at 5.21±0.15% (24 days), while BrM-BI peaked at 4.5% (38 days) before declining to 0.86±0.17% (66 days). BrM-BI exhibited significantly higher solubility (6.02±0.09%) than BI (0.12±0.08%). Conclusion: The brominated resin successfully achieved radiopacity with potential for clinical visibility. However, reduced polymerisation efficiency and high solubility indicate further formulation optimization is necessary before clinical application.7 0