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With the advance of the Silk Road Initiative proposed by China, it has been a focus of China government to develop strategic emerging industries. The development of strategic emerging industries needs the support of competitive intelligence on many aspects such as strategical planning, policy making, industrial structure adjustment, and technology innovation. However, so far there are few studies toward the competitive intelligence systems for strategic emerging industries. In this article, we focus on a number of issues related to the competitive intelligence for strategic emerging industries in China. First, we conduct a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis on the situations of strategic emerging industries in China, based on which the necessity of building a competitive intelligence (CI) service system for strategic emerging industries is discussed. Next, the authors present a framework of a CI service system for strategic emerging industries in China. The principles, components, working process, and product forms are deeply described. The CI service system proposed in this article consists of a cooperation network platform, three layered organizations, and three systems, which integrates organizations, information, people, network, and service platforms into an ecosystem to offer competitive intelligence supports for government, industry, and enterprises. Finally, the authors discuss a case study of the proposed CI service system for the new energy automobile industry.

Purpose: The purpose of this chapter is to elaborate on the major conceptual and practical considerations of the use of robots, artificial intelligence and service automation (RAISA) in travel, tourism, and hospitality companies (TTH).

Design/methodology/approach: The chapter develops a conceptual framework of the major issues related to the use of RAISA in the travel, tourism and hospitality context.

Findings: The findings indicate that while there is a creeping incursion of RAISA into TTH, there are major concerns that the TTH industry has to consider in regard to automating TTH services.

Practical implications: In a practical sense, the chapter identifies the decisions that TTH industry professionals need to take when dealing with RAISA technologies. Furthermore, the chapter elaborates on the impacts RAISA have on business operations, marketing management, human resources and financial management of TTH companies. The TTH industry has to adjust its practices and communicate with its workforce in ways as not to increase Luddite tendencies and resistance among employees.

Social implications: The analysis shows that there is an upcoming era in which automation of services will be so advanced that wealthy countries may not need to import labour to make up with its own aging workforce, suggesting that RAISA and its further development has the potential for disrupting society and international relations.

Originality/value: This chapter provides a comprehensive review of the issues related to the use of RAISA in the TTH industry, including the drivers of RAISA adoption in tourism, advantages and disadvantages of RAISA technologies compared to human employees, decisions that managers need to take, and the impacts of RAISA on business processes. It shows how macroenvironmental pressures shape the microeconomic decisions to use RAISA in a TTH context.

The Braun and Simpson’s (2004) study indicates that the Pause method is an effective teaching approach for auditing based on four sets of hypotheses in developing students’ oral, written and interpersonal communication skills. In addition, it is more beneficial to the learning process and more enjoyable than the lecture-only method. The extent of achieving both of these is dependent on the type of activity that is consistent with the student’s preferred Pause method activity. Students will achieve higher examination scores when following their preferred Pause activity. Our study replicates the Braun and Simpson’s study in Greater China using one university in Hong Kong and one in mainland China as students in these jurisdictions are more passive learners and their value of learning more extrinsic than intrinsic. The results are similar to the Braun and Simpson’s study, thus enhancing the universality of the “Pause” method.

In recent years, a great number of top conferences and workshops on artificial intelligence (AI) were held in China, showing Chinese AI plays an important role in the world. Meanwhile, Chinese government announced an ambitious scheme, “New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan,” for the country to become a world leader in AI technologies by 2030. The AI research in China has covered various aspects, ranging from chips to algorithms. This chapter attempts to give an overview of the recent advances of AI research and development in China, as well as some perspectives on the future development of AI in China.

The sharp increase in interest in social networks among marketing scholars and practitioners has coincided with the rapid proliferation of social networks among broader populations. Considering the substantial body of research that has emerged, it is an opportune time to reflect on the state of social network research (SNR) in marketing. Therefore, this chapter reviews recent marketing research, organized according to substantive areas of interest, followed by a discussion of critical dimensions of SNR for researchers, including network actor characteristics, modes, boundaries, impacts, and mechanisms, as well as the relevant level of analysis. By documenting how SNR can inform marketing decisions and influence marketing outcomes, this study also establishes recommendations for research to advance the state of SNR in marketing. A 2 × 2 classification schema reveals four categories that might guide scholars' choices of research designs, theories, constructs, and measures for SNR.

Purpose – The advancement of multimedia technology has spurred the use of multimedia in business practice. The adoption of audio and visual data will accelerate as marketing scholars become more aware of the value of audio and visual data and the technologies required to reveal insights into marketing problems. This chapter aims to introduce marketing scholars into this field of research.Design/methodology/approach – This chapter reviews the current technology in audio and visual data analysis and discusses rewarding research opportunities in marketing using these data.Findings – Compared with traditional data like survey and scanner data, audio and visual data provides richer information and is easier to collect. Given these superiority, data availability, feasibility of storage, and increasing computational power, we believe that these data will contribute to better marketing practices with the help of marketing scholars in the near future.Practical implications: The adoption of audio and visual data in marketing practices will help practitioners to get better insights into marketing problems and thus make better decisions.Value/originality – This chapter makes first attempt in the marketing literature to review the current technology in audio and visual data analysis and proposes promising applications of such technology. We hope it will inspire scholars to utilize audio and visual data in marketing research.