International Journal of Social Science Research and Review

Role of Strategic Marketing in Survival of Small Business and Creating Job Opportunities in the U.S. Economy

2025-12-24T11:53:52+00:00

Small businesses are essential drivers of US economic growth and employment; however, many struggle to remain viable because of inadequate strategic marketing capabilities. This study filled the existing gap on a measurable effect of strategic marketing practices on small business survival and job creation, which has not received much attention in empirical studies. The purpose of the research was to analyze the effect of marketing orientations such as market research, branding, pricing and digital marketing on business performance and employment creation. After quantitatively surveying 410 small business owners and managers in the context of different U.S. regions, analyses were conducted through Descriptive statistics and Structural Equation Modelling. Findings indicated that strategic marketing practices were associated with 62.4% of the variation in survival of firms and 54.7% in firm job creation. In terms of marketing dimensions, digital marketing performance (β = 0.41, p < 0.01) and customer relationship action plans (β = 0.36, p < 0.01) had the greatest effect on firm survival and workforce growth. The results indicated that businesses with a regular marketing planning and customer‐centric approach were 1.8 times more likely to achieve sales growth, job creation. Original evidence on marketing strategy and socioeconomic outcomes was provided, with policy implications for the support of small firms’ marketing capacity to increase employment and develop regions.

Event-Driven Economic Behavior in Virtual Economies: Evidence from Hypixel Skyblock

2025-12-23T12:27:04+00:00

This study investigates how consumer economic behavior changes in response to short-term, event-driven conditions, taking the “Season of Jerry” event in the virtual economy of Hypixel Skyblock as its focus. The research tracks spending, saving, and investment choices across four distinct phases: pre-event, immediate pre-event, event, and post-event, spanning December 1 to December 25, 2024. Six randomly selected players provided daily records of their financial activity in-game, which were then examined to identify recurring patterns and trends. The analysis shows that players who favored balanced strategies, built around reinvestment and the use of passive income methods, generally achieved more consistent and profitable results. By contrast, those who leaned heavily on speculative approaches or short-term consumption often experienced losses. Several real-world economic concepts could be observed in action within this virtual setting, including prospect theory, bounded rationality, and the sunk cost effect. While the modest sample size and the limitations of a game-based context make broad generalization difficult, the results suggest that virtual economies can serve as valuable environments for studying consumer behavior. They may also provide insights that are useful to educators, economists, and digital platform designers who are interested in decision-making under temporary shocks.

Beyond Dichotomies: Rethinking Conflict Dynamics between the Refugee-Host Community in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

2025-12-23T12:27:04+00:00

Why does the relationship between refugees and hosts in long-term displacement always seem to fail? Global displacement presents a significant challenge; yet existing analytical frameworks frequently simplify complex dynamics into a binary struggle. This study argues that such reductionism conceals the true drivers of conflict. Our objective is to systematically examine the multi-layered conflicts, exemplified by the protracted displacement in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, using the complexity paradigm, analysing actor, issue, and behavioural complexity. The methodology relies on qualitative fieldwork, including 40 in-depth interviews with refugees, host community members, local leaders and humanitarian practitioners, and document analysis. The main findings show that the conflict is a complex adaptive system, where hostility is not inevitable but induced by policy-driven competition (such as the restriction of legal work) and interconnected loops of escalation. Specifically, substantial cuts in humanitarian aid intensify desperation, promote illegal activities, and perpetuate host community bias, systematically undermining initial solidarity. This study confirms the limitations of reductionist crisis management and presents explicit implications: mitigating conflict requires systemic policy initiatives aimed at addressing statelessness and establishing sustainable integration models, rather than merely managing symptoms.

Sustainable Approaches to Medical Waste Management for Better Public Health Outcomes

2025-12-30T19:03:21+00:00

Purpose: Medical waste disposal has become a significant issue worldwide, driven by public health concern, environmental safety and healthcare continuum. This work investigates sustainable management of infectious waste by examining technologies, governance models and stakeholder perceptions in different country context and opportunities for its circular economy. Methodology/approach: This research applied the mixed methods to analyses sustainable medical waste management practices and its health impacts. Results/findings: Results show that more advanced non-burn techniques, autoclaving and microwaving, are prevalent in high income countries and result in relatively good concomitant compliance of low emissions at the three cost types. Methods including incineration, open burning and burials are employed in middle and low-income countries that provide poor infection control with high degree of threats to the environment and public health. Comparisons between subsystem circularities, autoclaving, chemical disinfection and the rate of reuse are also discovered to be more effective in terms of reducing infection risk during health crises as well as environmental impact. Lack of enforcement, inadequate training and financial limitations still remain the major deficiencies in most parts. The necessity to incorporate non-burn technologies and strengthen governance and enforcement, incentivize circular economy innovations, establish surge capacity for future crises. Limitations: The findings are constrained by a narrow focus on technological and economic factors and a cross-sectional design that precludes long-term impact assessment. Contribution: Sustainable medical waste disposal is thus extremely critical in order to minimize environmental pollution and also to protect human health, while ensuring the sustainability of the healthcare system.

From Crisis to Continuity: Education as Care in Displacement and Refugee Resettlement

2025-12-30T19:03:20+00:00

Human mobility and migration have reached unprecedented levels, driven by protracted conflicts, environmental changes, and intensified globalization, significantly impacting the quality of education for millions of learners, who are forced to leave their homes, communities, and learning environments. Human mobility occurs both internally within a country and across borders. Forcibly displaced learners face intersecting challenges of loss, trauma, and instability. At the same time, the majority reside in low- and middle-income nations that shoulder the most significant responsibility for providing access to learning with limited resources. In these contexts, education is a means of survival and a bridge from crisis to continuity, offering psychosocial support, cultural and linguistic stability, and the hope of recovery. In connecting structural innovation to ethical responsibility, this work proposes education as care as a framework for restoring dignity, inclusion, and empowerment through ethically governed, trauma-sensitive, and culturally and historically sustaining systems of learning. This article explores how educators and policymakers can foster sustainable learning for displaced and resettled students by embracing innovation rooted in care, ethics, and equity. Drawing on relevant global research and field-based initiatives, this study explores educational practices in six conflict areas and six host contexts, concluding that when care, transparency, and ethical responsibility inform educational design, schooling becomes a moral act of restoration, solidarity, and human dignity.

Mathematics Books and the Motivations of Their Authors in 18th-Century Spain

2025-12-30T19:03:21+00:00

This research examines the motivations of authors of mathematics books published in Spain during the 18th century through a comprehensive analysis of a corpus of seventeen representative works. The prologues and introductory discourses of these manuals are analysed using a historical-documentary approach to ascertain the objectives declared by their authors and to establish a connection between these objectives and the various types of mathematical production from that period. The results reveal a tripartite structure in authorial motivations: a didactic orientation, associated with elementary teaching and constituting the majority group; a professional or technical motivation, linked to mathematics applied to trades and to military or administrative institutions; and a social or moral motivation, related to Enlightenment ideology and the formation of the rational citizen. The graphical analysis of these correspondences demonstrates a historical progression from school mathematics towards applied mathematics and, to a lesser extent, towards a moralising discourse on its usefulness for social progress. This study contributes to understanding the educational role of mathematical manuals in Enlightenment Spain and provides a foundation for future research on the history of mathematics textbooks. This study contributes to understanding the educational role of mathematical manuals in Enlightenment Spain and provides a foundation for future research on the history of mathematics textbooks.

A Critical Assessment of Problems in the Teaching of Culture in Iranian Public Schools

2025-12-30T19:03:21+00:00

The following article strives to depict why culture is almost not taught in EFL classes in Iranian schools with the caveat that teaching English devoid of culture shall have dire national and international consequences given that we live in a global village. Based on Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) the article criticizes the Iranian education system because of trying to keep students in ignorance of foreign cultures and Iranian subcultures which leads to illiteracy, itself the main source of prejudice, segregation, hostility, and ethnocentrism. It also accuses the Islamic Republic governments of flip-flopping on this major issue and of condoning Intercultural Communicative Competence’s aims and principles in education. It at first discusses the socio-political context in which English teaching takes place and shows how much anti-foreign culture and anti-foreign language the context is and then it depicts the precarious situation of subcultures and explicates the inevitable negative results that ignoring subcultures may have in a heterogeneous society. The article also accentuates the necessity of the teaching of culture in ELT by giving examples of cultural faux pas. It at last appraises the Iranian English school textbooks clearly showing their shallowness, triviality, incompleteness, and political bias. According to the principles of ICC, the article principally comes to the conclusion that the force of cultural levity at work in the textbooks propagates homogeneity, prejudice, and ignorance all detrimental to Iranian society and its relations with the international community.

Socio-Economic Impact of Support Actions for the Vegetable Sector in Northern Côte d'Ivoire

2026-01-07T22:27:31+00:00

Subject Description: Financial, technical, and organizational support for the agricultural sector is a powerful tool in the fight against rural poverty. This study evaluates the socio-economic impact of a project to revitalize agricultural value chains in Côte d'Ivoire.

Objective: It aims to identify the achievements of the support actions undertaken in order to propose corrective measures that could be developed through local initiatives.

Methodology: A qualitative and quantitative approach was used. The sample consisted of 11 groups benefiting from the market gardening value chain revitalization activities. Seven (7) sub-prefectures in the Poro Region were covered. Focus groups of 9 people in average were conducted in each group. Descriptive statistics, fact-based systems analysis, and the chi-square test were used.

Results: At the social level, the groups received more assets, particularly kitchen equipment and vehicles. However, donations to the village and the canteen did not increase significantly. In terms of organization, the project helped formalize the groups. Regarding irrigation methods, no significant improvement in water sources was observed. Furthermore, the project did not significantly impact existing marketing methods. Onions were the only crop produced by the groups, with an average yield of 5.95 tons per hectare on 0.3 hectares. However, after the project, the groups achieved an average yield of 15.10 tons per hectare on 3 hectares. In addition to onion, tomato, eggplant, okra, and pepper were adopted to varying degrees.

Conclusion: Ultimately, the project had a noticeable impact on the lives of the groups, especially at the social and organizational levels.

The Role of Leadership Development in the Performance of the Wholesale and Retail Industry

2026-01-07T22:39:01+00:00

This study examines the role of leadership development in the performance of the wholesale and retail industry, focusing on how effective leadership practices influence organizational success, employee engagement, and overall market competitiveness. The research adopts a mixed-method approach, combining theoretical analysis with empirical data collected from various organizations operating in Kosovo's retail and wholesale sector. Through surveys and semi-structured interviews, key insights were gathered on the impact of leadership styles, training programs, and managerial practices on the operational efficiency and growth of businesses in this industry. The findings reveal a strong correlation between leadership development and improved organizational performance. Companies that prioritize leadership training and foster a culture of continuous improvement report higher employee satisfaction, reduced turnover, and enhanced financial performance. However, challenges such as limited resources, resistance to change, and inconsistent implementation of leadership initiatives were also identified. This paper concludes with practical recommendations for businesses and policymakers, emphasizing the importance of investing in leadership development as a strategic tool for achieving sustainable growth in the highly competitive wholesale and retail market. Additionally, the study highlights areas for future research, including the exploration of advanced leadership models and their adaptation to the specific needs of the regional market.