مطالب

This study aims to investigate Saudi Arabia’s quest for regional hegemony, including its objectives, initiatives, and difficulties. In other words, the degree to which Saudi Arabia has been successful in establishing itself as the region’s dominant power. It is crucial to thoroughly explain Saudi Arabia’s psychological and practical justifications for pursuing regional hegemony in this context. To examine the political discourses, reality, narratives, ambitions, and perspectives of Saudi Arabia and compare these with other regional powers in this area, as well as to highlight a number of context-specific constraints on Saudi Arabia’s aspirations for regional hegemony, is the goal of the research. In addition, it intends to investigate how external powers such as the United States, China, Russia, the European Union, and Turkey influence Middle Eastern regional dynamics based on their own vested interests. This analysis demonstrates that Saudi Arabia’s drive for regional hegemony is mostly restrained by external causes. First, despite its preeminent economic power, the country lacks strong military capabilities to provide a security shield for its friends in this region. Second, the sectarian politics and undiversified economy of the region make it unlikely that secondary nations will receive full public goods. Third, low economic integration, the perception of a common regional threat, the absence of a broad free trade arrangement, the superiority of hard power over soft power, and a lack of mutual trust among regional countries are significantly diminishing the acceptance of Saudi Arabia’s hegemonic role in the region. However, Saudi Arabia is deliberately involving regional partners and coalitions in regional growth. The country takes on the main task for reshaping the Middle East’s economy and elevating this region to success. If Saudi Arabia is successful in fostering regional integration, offering a security shield, encouraging trust building, and collaborating with other states in this region to address shared regional threats, it will have a greater chance than the majority of other states in the region to become the regional hegemon. 

Purpose : The purpose of this research is to design a model for evaluating digital innovation and transformation in startup business models. Method : The methodology of this reseatch is descriptive-exploratory and employs a qualitative approach. The thematic analysis was employed to study digital innovation and transformation in startup business models. The participants in this research were academic and industrial experts with a background in research and executive work in lean startups. Initially, a purposive sampling method was used to select the samples, and this was later extended using the snowball method. Ultimately, the researcher conducted 14 expert interviews to collect data. The data obtained from the interviews were reviewed and analyzed using coding based on theme analysis. Initially, codes were extracted from the text of the interviews. These codes were aggregated into more general codes, which were further studied and integrated into components. From these components, relevant dimensions were proposed, leading to the presentation of a model based on these dimensions and extracted components. Findings : The results indicate that the digital Innovation and transformation evaluation model for startup business models includes six main dimensions and 19 sub-themes. The proposed model consists of the following dimensions: "monitoring and analysis of market needs" with three components, "evaluation of product development costs" with three components, "digital innovation and transformation in the business model" with four components, "coordination and integration inside and outside the organization" with two components, "evaluation of learning ability and absorption of organizational knowledge" with three components, and "organizational resources and capacities" with four components. Conclusion : Based on the research findings, it is suggested that managers in the technology field understand the importance of lean startups. The indicators in the proposed model may be considered to help prepare and empower startups to improve their products and services. Each proposed dimension can be seen as a management skill necessary for the success of lean startups. Managers may create the appropriate conditions to integrate all of company capabilities.

Karbala city is destination of millions of pilgrims from all over the world every year. Therefore, this research has assessed strategies for developing religious tourism in Karbala city, with an emphasis on improving the pilgrims' experience and exploiting the economic and social capacities of this city. First, indicators related to religious tourism infrastructure were identified, and then their impact on the pilgrims' experience was analyzed using statistical methods. Data collection tool is a researcher-made questionnaire, which was used to examine its validity from the specialists and experts in quantitative and relative content validity coefficient, and to examine its reliability, was used Cronbach's alpha. The statistical sample includes two groups, 19 people in the qualitative section and 550 people in the quantitative section, selected using convenience sampling. Data analysis includes initial coding, classification, extraction of indicators and variables, descriptive and inferential statistics such as one sample t-test, analysis of variance, Pearson correlation, and linear regression. Results showed residence index with the maximum mean and minimum dispersion indicates the its importance and diversity for pilgrims. The recreational and commercial services index with the lowest mean showed less importance. Correlation results indicate a positive and significant relationship between the attraction index and other indicators at the 0.001 level, which shows that as tourist attractions are strengthened, other services and infrastructure are equally effective in improving the pilgrims' experience. Results of compare means between pilgrims and local residents showed in the catering service and residence indexes, mean of rank pilgrims (253.21 and 254.49) are higher than local residents (239.65 and 234.55) at a significance level of 0.398 and 0.215, respectively. As a result, improving tourism infrastructure, accessibility and improving the quality of recreational and medical services can lead to increased pilgrim satisfaction.