Editorial: Digital technologies, innovation and human resource management: implications for labour markets

Journal of Science and Technology Policy Management continues to explore new and emerging topics in the field, providing innovative knowledge and insights from diverse countries and regions. The journal aims to serve as a forum for the exchange of knowledge, the promotion of scholarly dialogue, and the development of policy frameworks that support inclusive and environmentally sustainable economic growth.The development of innovative digital tools to address global challenges offers significant opportunities for the creation of new businesses, employment, and economic growth worldwide. However, this pathway toward the twin transition also entails substantial risks. Companies and governments must learn to navigate this new era successfully and to design innovative solutions for increasingly uncertain and complex economic environments (Anshari and Ordóñez de Pablos, 2025; Anshari et al., 2026; Zhou et al., 2026). Moreover, they must grasp the evolving demands of labor markets and learn how to cultivate talent for the digital era (Hu et al., 2026; Liu et al., 2024).Issue 4 of the Journal of Science and Technology Policy Management features a regular collection of 9 papers. The issue discusses innovative frameworks and studies about topics like augmented reality, crowdfunding, digital business, entrepreneurship, e-procurement, fintech, human resource management, innovation and supply chain management, among others. On the other hand, the issue has a special emphasis on Saudi Arabia, presenting 3 papers focused on this country.The first paper titled “Kingdom of Fintech: Crowdfunding Shaping the Future in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia” (by Aysan, Lemine and Kayani) analyses “whether Islamic real estate crowdfunding (RECF) can offer a compelling alternative investment that can attract substantial funds from traditional securities and other conventional methods or otherwise. The current study draws on secondary data that was published on legitimate website, Twitter and official documents. Document analysis is conducted using the statements of privacy policy, Sharia compliance, terms and conditions disclosers and the established facts. Second, to achieve in-depth knowledge, a qualitative analysis was conducted for the published interviews and presentations with Aseel CEO Majed Abalkhail on YouTube. Thematic analysis is adapted; it is among the most popular types of analyzing qualitative data. The findings show that the Aseel platform has been successful in providing simple access to investment opportunities by minimizing the obstacles, reducing entry and exit costs, streamlining the process and widening the investor’s base.”The paper titled “Digital technology adoption, workforce agility and digital technology outcomes in the context of the banking industry of India” (by Muduli and Choudhury) states that “the rapid adoption of digital technology forced the leaders to explore and examine the drivers and facilitators capable of enhancing the bank’s performance. This paper empirically aims to examine the role of technology acceptance and workforce agility in digital technology adoption in the banking industry. Furthermore, this research examines the mediating role of workforce agility between digital technology acceptance and digital technology outcome. Influenced by the attitude–behavior–outcome framework, this survey research has been designed to collect data from both high-level executives and low-level executives working in the banking sector undertakings of India. The research adopted a two-step procedure for testing theoretical models using SPSS-AMOS, Version 27. Hayes PROCESS macro (Version 4.3.1; 2023) technique was executed to test the mediation. The result proved that the banker’s acceptance of digital technology positively impacted banks’ performance. Furthermore, this study proved that workforce agility has a favorable, significant mediating influence between digital technology acceptance and digital technology outcome suggesting banks design and implement suitable management policies and practices to enhance the technology acceptance mindset of the bankers and promote workforce agility for higher customer relationships and performance.”The paper titled “Mediation of Integrations in Supply Chain Information Management and Supply Chain Performance: An Empirical Study from a Developing Economy” (by Rashid, Rasheed, Tanveer, Ishaq and Amirah) explores “how the management of supply chain information impacts the performance of the supply chain. This relationship is explored by considering the mediating influence of internal and external integration, which is underpinned by the principles of resource-based theory. Data was collected from 144 supply chain professionals across different manufacturing companies. The proposed hypotheses were subjected to quantitative analysis using partial least squares structural equation modeling, and the validity of the measurement model was assessed with the assistance of SmartPLS software. This study identified that information management (IM) significantly and positively affects internal integration (II), customer integration (CI) and supply chain performance (SCP). Similarly, the results showed that II significantly and positively affects SCP. Likewise, CI positively and significantly affected SCP. At the same time, II found a positive yet significant mediating role in the relationship between IM and SCP. CI was found to play a positive but insignificant mediating role in the relationship between IM and SCP. This research evaluated a second-order model and tested the SCP in conjunction with the resource-based view in the manufacturing industry. This research could be beneficial for researchers, manufacturers and policymakers to attain organizational objectives by implementing an efficient IM system for better integration and SCP.”The paper titled “Augmented reality technology in tourism and hospitality research: a review from 2010 to 2024” (by Jalilvand and Ghasemi) affirms that “augmented reality (AR) is revolutionizing the tourism and hospitality industry by offering immersive experiences as well as creating more engaging, informative and accessible travel experiences that attract tourists from around the globe. From virtual tours and immersive historical site recreations to navigation assistance and cultural education, AR technology is transforming the way we explore and interact with the destinations. This study aims to identify benefits, risks, tools and techniques of AR in the tourism and hospitality literature. The authors conducted a systematic literature review to answer six research questions. The authors also identified 33 primary studies, dated from January 2010 to February 2024 and coded them via a thematic analysis. Related studies were obtained through searching in Web of Science and Scopus. The results identified nine themes for benefits, eight themes for risks/disadvantages and four tools and applications-related themes. Through the thematic analysis, the major benefits of AR in the tourism and hospitality were found to be differentiated travel experiences, improved performance of tourism value chain, more effective marketing efforts of tourism businesses, enhanced tourists’ engagement, enhanced performance of tourism destinations, stimulated behavioral intentions, tourist empowerment and providing more value, interactivity and integrity. Furthermore, eight risks were identified: physical, privacy and security, social, service failure, technical, psychological, managerial, information and knowledge gaps. The authors also recognized four tools and applications-related themes, namely, AR-enabled tools, AR applications, AR-enabled apps and AR-based techniques.”The paper titled “Entrepreneurial orientation and product innovation performance: Developing the linkages through strategic human resource management and technology capability” (by Abdelwahed, Al Doghan, Shah and Soomro) states that “the optimization of product innovation performance (PIP) is paramount to achieving sustained profitability in the face of current organizational challenges. In this study, as researchers, the authors investigate within the context of Saudi Arabian manufacturing firms’ entrepreneurial orientation (EO) direct impact on PIP and its indirect influence mediated by strategic human resource management (SHRM) and technology capability (TC). This co-relational study used cross-sectional data. The authors collected the data from the manufacturing firms’ top management team, chief executive officers and other staff members, including human resource (HR) managers and chief information officers. This study’s conclusions are based on 307 cases. Using SmartPLS4, this study’s findings demonstrate that EO exerts a positive and significant impact on SHRM, PIP and TC. SHRM has a positive and significant effect on PIP. In addition, TC is a positive and significant predictor of SHRM but not PIP. Turning to the mediating impacts, SHRM plays a positive mediating role between TC and PIP and a negative role between EO and PIP. Finally, TC reinforces the negative connections between EO and PIP.”The paper titled “The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Agri-food Labour Market: A Systematic Literature Review” (by Musa and Ariff Lim) affirms that “the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) technological development has undeniably brought major challenges to the agricultural labor market, hampering the adoption of smart technologies in the sector. This study aims to explore a series of literature on the 4IR aspects surrounding agri-food research. In particular, this study will evaluate the challenges faced by the agri-food labor market in response to the emergence of 4IR and propose solutions to strengthen the agri-food sector in response to 4IR. The preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses methodology was used to systematically screen, review and synthesize the literature on 4IR surrounding agri-food research. While applying 4IR technologies spells opportunities for productivity growth and food security, the results revealed that these advanced technological innovations also create challenges to the agri-food sector labor market. Some identified challenges are financial constraints, lack of ‘Industry 4.0’ knowledge and skills, lack of awareness and interest and inadequate government support. Correspondingly, to smoothen the transition to 4IR workplaces, the proposed solutions include offering relevant education and training, gaining access to government support and engaging in collaborative public−private partnerships.”The paper titled “Sharia Crowdfunding In Indonesia: A Regulatory Environment Perspective” (by Syarif and Aysan) presents the results of a study that analyses “the practices and rules of Sharia crowdfunding policies in Indonesia given the rapid growth of financial technology and the increasing importance of crowdfunding as a funding alternative for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). This study used qualitative methods, exploratory methods and literature studies for data collection. The focus is on understanding the regulatory environment and institutional framework that support Sharia crowdfunding in Indonesia. Despite a specific law regulating Sharia crowdfunding, several authoritative institutions in Indonesia offer FinTech, crowdfunding and Sharia crowdfunding services. Some regulations have been issued, such as Bank Indonesia Regulation Number 19 / 12/PBI/2017 and Financial Services Authority (OJK) Regulation Number 37/POJK.04 / 2018, which was later amended to Number 57/POJK.04 / 2020. This study emphasizes the crucial role of OJK in providing security guarantees for implementing FinTech, including crowdfunding. At the same time, Sharia crowdfunding also follows fatwas issued by DSN-MUI. This study describes Sharia crowdfunding policies in Indonesia and indicates that further research could delve deeper into specific cases and examine the impact of these policies on the growth and sustainability of Sharia crowdfunding.”The paper titled “Antecedents the Adoption of Tour Itineraries from Smart Travel Apps: An Integration of Experiential Consumption Theory and Innovation Resistance Theory” (by Khan and Mehmood) aims to “investigate the antecedents the adoption of tour itineraries from smart travel apps. Travelers are progressively expanding their smart travel planning applications to organize their trip-related activities. With the help of these apps, users achieve their favorite tour itineraries and choose their preferred destinations. This study aimed to examine the results of smart tour itineraries on travelers and elucidate the motivations for their continual use and why travel experts are increasingly using smart tour itineraries. Innovation resistance and experiential consumption theories were used in this study. SmartPLS 3.2.8 was used to consider 682 valid samples using structural equation modeling (SEM).This analysis identified the following crucial factors: usage, value, risk and traditional barriers. Moreover, utilitarian and hedonic values significantly affected barriers. Finally, theoretical and practical suggestions are presented along with future research directions.”Finally, the last paper of issue 4, “Factors affecting adoption of e-procurement with electronic orders integrated systems by Enterprises: Evidence from World Bank Survey of Saudi Arabia” (by Asif, Siddiqui and Sharma), examines “the factors that influence the adoption of e-procurement by businesses in the specific context of Saudi Arabia. This study uses the firm-level data of World Bank Enterprise Surveys 2022 of Saudi Arabia covering 1,573 enterprises. The association between firm characteristics and the adoption of e-procurement by enterprises has been examined through the chi-square test. Further, a logistic regression model has been fitted to estimate the factors affecting adoption of e-procurement. About 10% of the enterprises reported that they adopted e-procurement as the establishment’s main technology to manage procurement and supplier chain by enterprises. A statistically significant association has been found between e-procurement vis-a-vis firm characteristics. Moreover, logistic regression analysis indicated that large and innovative enterprises, with digital presence in terms of website, holding a bank account and access to credit are more likely to adopt e-procurement. This study offers valuable insights into the factors that influence the adoption of e-procurement by businesses, which helps the supply chain manager to develop and operationalize the digital supply chain through e-procurement in the context of Saudi Arabia.”