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The depletion of fossil fuels, economic concerns over the sharp fluctuations in oil prices, and environmental concerns including global warming have renewed interest in alternative green energy solutions in the form of renewable energy technologies. Solar energy is one of the most promising and environmentally friendly forms of renewable energy for power generation. However, energy transition towards renewables has been slow in developing countries, particularly in the oil-rich Arab Gulf countries. To assess the perspective of Omani consumers in terms of solar energy use, barriers, and readiness to use solar energy for sustainable development, this study aims to determine the proportion of the Omani population who use solar energy, the barriers to solar energy consumption in Oman, people's perceptions towards solar energy barriers, policies aimed at promoting solar energy programs, and the likelihood and willingness to use solar energy in the future. This analysis is based on quantitative data collected through a questionnaire survey distributed in Oman between 20 June 2023 to 12 August 2023. We used 113 samples for analysis using Principal Component Analysis and Krushkal–Wallis H-tests. Our results revealed that 95% of the residents and commercial units surveyed are willing to use solar PV in the future. The main barriers identified include high installation costs, high maintenance costs, and lack of awareness. The potential for growth in solar energy consumption and use depends on the capacity of the government to provide substantial incentives, financial support, improved quality, implement public-private partnership programs, as well as introduce a clear solar energy policy. While evaluating consumers' awareness and intentions to use solar energy in the future, this study offers practical implications for policymakers to forecast the potential growth, identify effective policy instruments for promoting renewable energy, and determine the readiness of the country for transition to cleaner energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study examines the condition of sustainable development in Omani fisheries industry, with specific focus on the extent to which the fishing companies practice sustainable fishing that meets the objective of food security. We also detect, characterize, and analyze the compliance of the fishing companies with the principles of social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Using 55 completed questionnaires of 70 surveyed operating fishing companies, a multivariate general linear model was used to determine the impact of economic and environmental factors on achieving sustainability, and domestic demand of fisheries sector in Oman. Our results revealed that more than 63% of companies believed that sustainability is extremely important in the fisheries industry, and around 42% of the companies 'strongly agree' that Oman meets its domestic demand from its own harvest. The model displayed significant effects of the amount of production for local consumption, climate change adaptation, and water waste management on improving sustainability of the fisheries sector. Analysis also confirmed significant effects on the amount of production for local consumption, amount of production for export, and using technology to locate stock on enabling the country to meet its domestic demand through its own harvest. We conclude by arguing that our findings have important implications for managing production in terms of food security and safeguarding domestic consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper underlines the significance of free trade agreements in attracting foreign direct investment and their impact on the operational capacities of local firms in host countries. It argues that free trade agreements do not only eliminate barriers to trade, but they also increase the size of the regional market and improve the business environment, making it more attractive to foreign direct investment, along with all the attributes and spillover effects associated with it. While determining the type of spillover effects of foreign direct investment associated with Oman's trade agreements, this paper uses the Kruskal–Wallis H-test and 438 samples from companies surveyed between 1 August and 31 October 2023 to assess the impact of spillovers on the performance of the surveyed companies. The results reveal that technology transfer, knowledge transfer, labour productivity, product efficiency, capital investments, and job creation have positive effects on the firms' operational capacities, with technology transfer having the highest impact (27%), followed by labour productivity and job creation (18%). The spillover effects are almost the same for company size and percentage of ownership. They also identified manufacturing and tourism as priority sectors and the availability of a skilled workforce as a major challenge. These findings make original contribution to the field as this is probably the first study to produce a firm-level analysis of spillover effects of foreign direct investment and trade agreements in the context of Oman and the wider Gulf region. The paper concludes with practical implications for policy makers when negotiating trade agreements and designing investment policies to optimize spillover effects on the performance of their domestic firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic integration, which in today's global trade is the fundamental component of linking economic ties between countries, is another important factor in the acceleration of economic growth. The provision of trade logistics services is essential to a nation's economic success in international trade activities. It is essential for enterprises engaged in active international trade to achieve competitive advantages. The international trade and localised commercial activity, to a large extent, is dependent on the logistics and supply chain infrastructure and operational capacity. However, the area received little attention from the perspective of applied economics. The in-depth empirical studies on the impacts of logistics on trade efficiency are few and limited. The study aims to investigate the role of logistics and supply chains in international and national trade in a developing country. It uses secondary data for the analysis. The model and software used in the study are the gravity model and GTAP10a. The time horizon used spans 2014–2030. The results show that in order to enhance trading and commercial activities, a developing country should develop logistics and supply chain infrastructure, train people, and design a flexible logistics policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of COVID-19 has badly affected most companies across the economy, with many of them claiming losses in revenue and human resources. As such claimed losses are hard to quantify, we aim to understand the nature and scale of the shortfalls in the company's revenues and the factors affecting changes in revenues, including demand of company's services and change in the operational capacity. The impact of shortfalls is also examined on human resources in terms of employee's layoffs, wages, and new recruitment during the time of COVID-19, specifically the period 2020–2021. The quantitative analysis is based on a survey questionnaire of 61 logistics and supply chain companies randomly selected from the industrial cities and free economic zones in the Sultanate of Oman. Data analysis reveals that the pandemic reduced the demand for services and lowered revenues, subsequently affecting wages and employees' layoffs. The lack of imported spare parts and raw materials affected the firm's operational capacity. The surveyed companies suffered from empty shipping containers and heavy traffic at various ports. While providing a more realistic and quantifiable account of the economic impact of the pandemic on firms operating in Oman, our findings have practical implications for policymakers and executives to develop a rapid response system to minimize the financial and human resources costs at the time of crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, operational capabilities of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been immensely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing many companies to use technology and innovation rather than the more traditional methods of operations. As the extent to which SMEs' adoption of technological tools is still unknown, this study assesses the technological transformations and the challenges facing SMEs during the pandemic. It also evaluates the levels of customers satisfaction and future technological innovation plans in SMEs. Using quantitative and qualitative primary date, we empirically examine how COVID-19 lockdowns accelerated technology use in Omani SMEs and test eight hypotheses applying paired t test and Pearson's correlation. Although the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been globally felt, this study focuses on the effect of the pandemic on SMEs operating in the logistics and supply chain sector in the Sultanate of Oman. The primary data used was collected through the survey questionnaire and interviews with business owners and company executives covering the period 2020–2021. The results show strong correlations between technology use before and during COVID-19; technology use during COVID-19 and in future; and technology use before COVID-19 and in future. They also reveal that technology adoption has been a successful persistence strategy during the pandemic and that highly digitized SMEs are more likely to adopt industry 4.0 technology. The findings are expected to have practical implications for policy making by investing and developing digital infrastructure to accelerate digital transformation, while company executives appreciating the requirements and benefits of adopting innovation and technology solutions to remain competitive. We acknowledge the limitation of our study to only SMEs in the Sultanate of Oman and within a short period of time during the COVID-19 pandemic. This makes it hard to generalize our findings; hence, we recommend further research in other business sectors and countries in the post-pandemic to corroborate our findings and compare outcomes. To the best of the authors' knowledge, no research has been done on SMEs that consider technological transformation during COVID-19. The study will advance knowledge of the development and adoption of technology in SMEs, as well as their impacts on productivity and efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transportation and logistics services have been severely disrupted starting from February 2020 due to precautionary measures of partial and complete lockdown taken by a number of countries to control the spread of COVID-19. The study aims to investigate the changes in the shipping and transportation traffic of medical and non-medical goods during and before the start of COVID-19 pandemic in Oman. The research question that will be addressed here is "Is there any significant difference in the volume of shipping and transportation traffic of medical and non-medical goods before and during COVID-19 in Oman?" The study applies the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test and Friedman's two way ANOVA on the data collected from 61 companies operating in Oman. The study found that the shipping and transportation traffic of both medical and non-medical goods decreased by 6.5% and 25.6% respectively during COVID-19. The higher percentage of decrease is noticeable in non-medical goods than the medical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study analyzes the economic impact of COVID-19 and its subsequent border closure and the lockdown on the logistics, transportation services, and supply chain networks, most notably the closure of industrial complexes, commercial centers, and loss of jobs and businesses. As the pandemic disruption of the global supply chains reached its peak in the Middle East region, with approximately 22 percent decline in turnover of goods transport companies in 2020, we empirically assess the impact of this decline on the revenue, demand of services, operation, wages, and employments in the logistics companies in the Sultanate of Oman. Methodologically, we employ the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, McNemar's test, and Wilcoxon Signed-Ranks test to analyze the primary data collected from 61 survey questionnaire responses and 20 interviews of senior executives of these companies. Our results reveal unfavorable pandemic externalities on the surveyed companies' balance sheet, demand for services, operational capacity, wage payments, and employee layoffs. We also observed strong correlations between the timely goods delivery and customs clearance and material shortages, and between customs clearance and material shortages. Our findings have practical implications for company executives to lessen the effects of the pandemic on the reduction of company income, service demand, operational capacity, salary payments, and employee layoffs. Policymakers must develop appropriate policy measures to enhance port competitiveness and improve customs procedures and service delivery.