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The COVID-19 pandemic has brought dramatic life changes to consumers. From the perspective of fashion shopping, this study aims to provide an understanding of how consumers have coped with the pandemic to maintain their physical and mental well-being.

Utilizing an observational research method, this study extracted and analyzed text data from Twitter, focusing on fashion consumption-related tweets posted by consumers in May 2020. Content analysis was employed to reveal consumers' coping strategies during the pandemic.

Through fashion shopping, consumers have employed various strategies to cope with the problems incurred during the pandemic as well as the associated emotional stress. Specifically, problem-focused strategies included both active coping and restraint coping. Emotion-focused strategies included positive reinterpretation, acceptance, mental disengagement and seeking social support.

Theoretically, this study provides empirical evidence for the Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced (COPE) Inventory in the context of using fashion shopping as a venue to cope with a pandemic. Managerial implications are also provided for the fashion industry as well as human service providers to better prepare for future public health crises.

Combining the coping theory and social support theory, this study aims to reveal users' coping strategies for mobile fitness app (MFA) engagement and fitness intentions with a rigorous and comprehensive hybrid research approach.

A three-stage hybrid research design was employed in this study. In the first stage, this study utilized structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate the associations between coping resources and coping outcomes. A post hoc analysis was conducted in the second stage to unveil the reasons behind the insignificant or weak linkages. In the third stage, the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) technique was applied to explore the various configurations of coping resources that lead to the coping outcomes.

The results in the three stages verify and compensate each other. The SEM results confirm the presence of two coping strategies in MFA, highlighting the importance of the intertwining of the strategies, and the post hoc analysis unveils the mediating role of positive affect. Moreover, the fsQCA results reinforce and complement the SEM findings by revealing eight alternative configurations that are sufficient for leading to users' MFA engagement and fitness intention.

This study offers a prominent methodological paradigm by demonstrating the application of multi-analysis in exploring users' coping strategies. In addition, the study also advances the understanding of the complexity of the mechanism that determines users' behavioral decisions by presenting a comprehensive interpretation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe challenges to ethnic minorities in the UK. While the experiences of migrants are both complex and varied depending on individuals' social class, race, cultural proximity to the host country and acculturation levels, more in-depth studies are necessary to fully understand how COVID-19 affects specific migrant groups and their health. Taiwanese migrants were selected because they are an understudied group. Also, there were widespread differences in pandemic management between the UK and Taiwan, making this group an ideal case for understanding how their acculturation journey can be disrupted by a crisis.

Qualitative data were collected at two different time points, at the start of the UK pandemic (March/April 2020) and six months on (October/November 2020), to explore migrant coping experiences over time. Theoretically, the authors apply acculturation theory through the lens of coping, while discussing health-consumption practices, as empirical evidence.

Before the outbreak of the pandemic, participants worked hard to achieve high levels of integration in the UK. The pandemic changed this; participants faced unexpected changes in the UK’s sociocultural structures. They were forced to exercise the layered and complex “coping with coping” in a hostile host environment that signalled their new marginalised status. They faced impossible choices, from catching a life-threatening disease to being seen as overly cautious. Such experience, over time, challenged their integration to the host country, resulting in a loss of faith in the UK’s health system, consequently increasing separation from the host culture and society.

It is important to note that the Taiwanese sample recruited through Facebook community groups is biased and has a high level of homogeneity. These participants were well-integrated, middle-class migrants who were highly educated, relatively resourceful and active on social media. More studies are needed to fully understand the impact on well-being and acculturation of migrants from different cultural, contextual and social backgrounds. This being the case, the authors can speculate that migrants with less resource are likely to have found the pandemic experience even more challenging. More studies are needed to fully understand migrant experience from different backgrounds.

Public health policymakers are advised to dedicate more resources to understand migrants' experiences in the host country. In particular, this paper has shown how separation, especially if embraced temporarily, is not necessarily a negative outcome to be corrected with specific policies. It can be strategically adopted by migrants as a way of defending their health and well-being from an increasingly hostile environment. Migrants' home country experience provides vicarious learning opportunities to acquire good practices. Their voices should be encouraged rather than in favour of a surprising orthodox and rather singular approach in the discussion of public health management.

The paper has clear public health policy implications. Firstly, public health policymakers are advised to dedicate more resources to understand migrants' experiences in the host country. Acknowledging migrants' voice is a critical first step to contribute to the development of a fair and inclusive society. Secondly, to retain skilful migrants and avoid a future brain-drain, policymakers are advised to advance existing infrastructure to provide more incentives to support and retain migrant talents in the post-pandemic recovery phase.

This paper reveals how a group of previously well-integrated migrants had to exercise “coping with coping” during the COVID crisis. This experience, over time, challenged their integration to the host country, resulting in a loss of faith in the UK’s health system, consequently increasing separation from the host culture and society. It contributes to the understanding of acculturation by showing how a such crisis can significantly disrupt migrants' acculturation journey, challenging them to re-acculturate and reconsider their identity stance. It shows how separation was indeed a good option for migrants for protecting their well-being from a newly hostile host environment.

Comfort foods consumption and linkages to stress coping strategies have received little attention in the business research on food products and services. This paper aims to explore comfort foods consumption among older Americans and how stress-coping strategies are related to their consumption frequency and variety of comfort foods.

Older Americans aged 50–99 years (N = 1,428) in the Health and Retirement Study were surveyed on their frequency and variety of comfort foods consumption and their consumption coping strategies. Data were analyzed and regression models were estimated.

Demographically, baby boomer, male, and non-Hispanic whites reported higher frequency and variety of comfort foods consumption. Comfort foods consumption in frequency and variety was significantly higher (lower) when “eat more” (“use alcohol”) was the endorsed coping strategy.

Research findings furthered research on the consumption of comfort foods among older American adults and added new insights into their coping behavior, both of which may help businesses be more targeted in serving comfort foods to the mature market and the public sector to tailor their services to older adults.

Digital forensic investigators (DFIs) encounter traumatic material, and this is associated with the development of secondary traumatic stress (STS). Limited research has been conducted with UK DFIs, a significant concern given their role. This study aims to explore levels of self-reported STS by DFIs, the relationship to gender, years as a DFI, frequency of exposure to traumatic material and difficulty coping with such material. This study also aims to provide insight into the psychological impact, identify potential risk groups and explore coping strategies within this specific group of professionals.

A correlational cross-sectional design was conducted at a fixed point in time, with a sample of 114 currently employed DFIs, recruited through the Forensic Capability Network.

Mean STS scores fell within the moderate range, although 29.9% of participants reported high to severe levels. Significant correlations were found between STS total and subscales with difficulty viewing child sexual abuse material (CSAM). While females reported higher mean STS scores, the difference was not statistically significant, however, females did score significantly higher on the arousal sub-scale of the STS. Regression analysis included the variables (COPE scale and subscales, frequency of viewing child abuse material, years spent working as a DFI, age, gender) that identified mental disengagement, difficulty viewing CSAM and younger age as predictors of increased STS.

Primarily, the reliance on self-report instruments lacks external validation of STS. Furthermore, possible response or selection basis could have stemmed from participants experiencing high stress. Hosting the study online hindered exploring this further, suggesting the potential for future research. Although the regression model explained 28% of STS variance, unaccounted factors remain, constituting 72% unexplained variance. A mixed method approach might unveil additional variables, addressing potential limitations. Additionally, this study was cross-sectional meaning that the authors cannot infer causation.

These findings underscore the need for educational efforts targeting DFI’s to raise awareness about potential mental health risks associated with CSAM-related work. Equally crucial is emphasising the hazards associated with adopting negative coping strategies. Equipping DFI’s with this knowledge may enable them to make informed decisions aimed at minimising the impact of job-related stressors. Moreover, it highlights the necessity of recognising DFIs as a group deserving access to professional and mental health support. It is pertinent to consider recent research highlighting the stigma of therapy and a prevailing perception of a “critical or judgemental workplace culture” among UK investigators.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study represents the first known exploration of STS in UK-based DFI’s, encompassing an investigation into potential risk and protective factors. A proportion of the sample reported experiencing mild to severe levels of STS, with the mean STS score falling within the moderate range. Notably, 29.9% of participants reported high to severe levels of STS.

The findings provide an inaugural exploration of STS among UK-based DFI’s, offering crucial insight into the psychological impact, vulnerable demographics and coping strategies within this unique professional context. Practical implications based on the findings are considered.

This study aims to investigate how entrepreneurial anxiety develops during the entrepreneurial intention stage in a developing country such as Bangladesh, where doing business has long been a challenge, and examine how individuals manage their entrepreneurial anxiety. Indeed, understanding how anxiety is formed when individuals decide to start a business has been a challenge, because such a decision is influenced by both individual and contextual factors.

This study applies thematic analysis to examine how individuals experience and react to entrepreneurial anxiety in a developing country context when they make a decision to start a business using data from 30 in-depth semistructured interviews with 20 aspiring and 10 active entrepreneurs. All participants are Bangladeshi nationals.

Consistent with earlier studies, the findings of this study revealed that entrepreneurial anxiety is regarded as a type of distress, doubt, fear, uneasiness and worry. Moreover, 11 distinct sources of entrepreneurial anxiety were identified, suggesting that some individuals develop problem-focused coping strategies to stay firm on their decision to start a business as planned, whereas others procrastinate.

The findings add new dimensions to the theory of entrepreneurial anxiety and offer practical implications for aspiring entrepreneurs, policymakers, parents and society as a whole.

This study contributes to an underexplored area of emotion in entrepreneurship by conceptualizing how entrepreneurial anxiety develops during a specific stage of the entrepreneurial process, that is, entrepreneurial intention.

The privacy paradox refers to the situation where users of online services continue to disclose personal information even when they are concerned about their privacy. One recent study of Facebook users published in Internet Research concludes that laziness contributes to the privacy paradox. The purpose of this study is to challenge the laziness explanation. To do so, we adopt a cognitive dispositions perspective and examine how a person’s external locus of control influences the privacy paradox, beyond the trait of laziness.

A mixed method approach is adopted. We first develop a research model which hypothesises the moderating effects of both laziness and external locus of control on privacy issues. We quantitatively test the research model through a two-phase survey of 463 Facebook users using the Hayes PROCESS macro. We then conduct a qualitative study to verify and develop the findings from the quantitative phase.

The privacy paradox holds true. The findings confirm the significant influence of external locus of control on the privacy paradox. While our quantitative findings suggest laziness does not affect the association between privacy concerns and self-disclosure, our qualitative data does provide some support for the laziness explanation.

Our study extends existing research by showing that a person’s external locus of control provides a stronger explanation for the privacy paradox than the laziness perspective. As such, this study further reveals the boundary conditions on which the privacy paradox exists for some users of social networking sites, but not others. Our study also suggests cognitive dissonance coping strategies, which are largely absent in prior investigations, may influence the privacy paradox.

As coaching assumes an increasingly critical role in satisfying employees' demands for growth, the function of coaching has progressively shifted towards direct supervisors. This study seeks to investigate the distinct effects of managerial coaching behaviors on employee outcomes from an emotional perspective. Specifically, we aim to explore whether leaders' encourage-to-explore and guide-to-learn behaviors impact employees' creativity and performance through discrete emotional mechanisms upon appraisal theory of emotion.

We conducted two studies to test our proposition. In study 1, an experiment using coaching scenarios was performed with 128 students majoring in management. In study 2, data were collected from 311 supervisor-subordinate dyads.

The results indicate that encourage-to-explore behaviors are positively related to employee creativity by fostering feelings of inspiration, and guide-to-learn behaviors are positively related to employee performance by alleviating anxiety. These findings suggest that different leaders’ coaching behaviors influence employee outcomes through different emotional processes. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are also discussed.

These findings suggest that different leaders’ coaching behaviors influence employee outcomes through different emotional processes. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are also discussed.

Studies show that supervisor incivility can have detrimental consequences for subordinates. However, little is known about the job and personal resources that can reduce the effect of supervisor incivility on subordinates' counterproductive work behavior (CWB). Based on the Job Demand-Resources (JD-R) model, we investigate social job crafting (job resource) and internal locus of control (LOC; personal resource) as buffers on the relationship between supervisor incivility and subordinates' CWB toward the organization.

Two field studies to test our proposed hypotheses were conducted. A two-wave time-lagged design was used and data was collected from 115 supervisors and 318 subordinates from a large electricity provider company (study 1) and 121 employee–coworker dyads from a large insurance company (study 2).

Across the two studies it was found that supervisor incivility positively relates to subordinates' CWB toward the organization. Further, this relationship was weaker for individuals with high internal LOC and those who engaged in social job crafting.

The findings are helpful for HR managers to figure out how to stop supervisor incivility through civility training and motivating employees to social job crafting behavior.

This study implies that social job crafting (job resource) and internal LOC (personal resource) are essential factors that can reduce the effects of supervisor incivility on subordinates' CWB toward the organization.

Despite the increasing interest in the metaverse—immersive three-dimensional virtual worlds wherein personalized avatars interact with one another—little is known about how users cognitively appraise and emotionally experience it. To fill this gap, the present study explores the emotional, behavioral and social consequences of users' cognitive appraisals, while focusing on social virtual reality (VR) as a representative entry point to the metaverse.

Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory against the backdrop of a framework for classifying emotions, this study develops and tests a theoretical model to account for users' continuance intention and its consequences in the social VR context based on two-wave panel survey data collected from 216 users of social VR platforms, including AltspaceVR, VRChat, Bigscreen and Rec Room.

The results of the first survey showed that perceived opportunity was more strongly influenced by technological opportunity than social opportunity, whereas perceived threat was more strongly affected by social threat than technological threat. Integrating the data collected from the first survey with those of the second survey, we also found that users' continuance intention positively influenced both their behavioral engagement and social self-efficacy.

By adopting a longitudinal approach, this study provides insights that may be valuable to researchers and practitioners who seek to use social VR for business purposes. This study also contributes to the metaverse literature by conceptualizing and operationalizing the opportunity and threat factors of social VR and identifying salient emotions that users experience in this context. Finally, this study has practical implications for addressing the social and technological features that may cause adverse user experiences in social VR.