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PurposeWith the rapid diffusion of the metaverse into all aspects of businesses and the education industry, scholars have predominantly focused on examining its projected benefits and harms, yet have overlooked to empirically explore its unpredictable nature, which offers an exciting realm of unexplored challenges and opportunities.Design/methodology/approachThis research adopts a qualitative research design in the form of 24 interviews from a single EdTech to investigate the possibility of unexpected developments resulting from the integration of the metaverse into its solutions.FindingsThree noteworthy observations have emerged from the analysis: technological obsolescence, resource allocation imbalance, and monoculturalism.Originality/valueThis research pioneers an empirical exploration of the latent outcomes stemming from metaverse adoption within EdTechs, while also introducing a novel theoretical framework termed "meta-governance," which extends the Edu-Metaverse ecosystem.

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to explore the impact of ownership concentration on banks' credit risk. The study employs a dynamic panel approach using data from 98 banks listed in the 10 Middle East and North African (MENA) emerging stock markets between 2003 and 2016. To better understand the nature of the relationship between ownership concentration and bank credit risk and how this relationship is shaped by the recent financial crisis, we conducted a pre‐ and postcrisis analysis. Our findings document a positive relationship between ownership concentration and nonperforming loans in the precrisis period, which surprisingly reverses during the postcrisis period. We argue that the reversal of this relationship is driven by changes in controlling shareholders' risk aversion, behavior, and attitude prompted by the financial crisis. Given that central banks are entrusted with forestalling banks' failure, incorporating ownership concentration, as a fundamental determinant of banks' credit risk, is crucial to anticipate future financial calamities. Our findings highlight the gravity of agency problems in emerging MENA markets. Reinforcing firm‐level as well as country‐level governance mechanisms is crucial to restore a sound banking system, enhance markets' integrity, and increase investors' confidence.

AbstractThis paper explores the barriers that Moroccan agricultural cooperatives face in adopting E‐commerce and the perceived impact this approach would hae on their business performance. We surveyed 120 Moroccan agricultural cooperatives and interviewed 13 cooperative presidents to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. We use descriptive and inferential statistics including independent t‐tests, One‐way ANOVA and post‐hoc analysis for quantitative data while we use thematic analysis for qualitative analysis. We document that the most important barrier to the adoption of E‐commerce in Moroccan agricultural cooperatives is the lack of information related to the low digital literacy of the cooperatives in question. Further, cooperatives believe that E‐commerce will have the highest impact on their brand image and competitiveness but will have the lowest impact on operating speed. Our results show that the higher the level of digitalization the higher the perceived impact of E‐commerce on business performance of Moroccan cooperatives. Our study provides a basis for understanding the challenges faced by Moroccan agricultural cooperatives in adopting E‐commerce. Our results can be used to craft policies and programs that ease the integration of this segment into the digital ecosystem of Morocco.