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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate Indonesian Muslim millennials’ decision-making process in purchasing halal food by introducing knowledge variable into the theory of planned behavior framework and education level (EL; i.e. low vs high) as the moderating variable.

There were 400 questionnaires that were distributed to obtain responses from Indonesian Muslim millennials consumers. SmartPLS was used as the structural equation modeling approach to perform the multi-group analysis.

EL plays an important role that determines Indonesian Muslim millennials’ decision-making process to purchase halal food.

The EL was distinguished based on the Indonesian formal education system, which excluded the religious education system from the analysis.

The information conveyance of halal food product attributes should be conducted gradually according to the millennial consumers’ EL. Millennial consumers with higher EL are more likely to internalize the credence attributes of halal food compared to the lower EL counterpart.

This study found the significant differences in terms of halal food purchase decision-making between the two groups of lower EL and higher EL.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the variable of halal food knowledge (HFK) into the theory of planned behavior framework to investigate Malaysian non-Muslim consumers’ decision-making process in purchasing halal food.

Data were collected through 350 distributed questionnaires toward non-Muslim consumers on five most visited grocery stores (hypermarket-based) in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. The collected data was analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences and SmartPLS.

Purchasing halal food remain an uneasy task for the non-Muslim consumers, thus rely on their personal evaluation and closest relative’s approval.

This study is focusing only on two halal food credence attributes namely health attribute and animal-friendly attributes.

Both health and animal friendly credence attributes of halal food should be the main message to be conveyed to the non-Muslim consumers. In addition, the inclusion of non-Muslim consumers within the Malaysian halal ecosystem might provide a solution to tackle the resistance of halal food from foreign countries.

The value of this study is the finding of halal food credence attributes of health and animal friendly, which are the dimensions of HFK.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to assess the impact of the 1999 Special Issue on Professionalization in Asia in the Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal (AAAJ); and second, more generally to review research on this topic post-1999.

The paper starts with a discussion of the research articles of the Special Issue. It then identifies research that has cited papers in the Special Issue and which focusses on professionalization in Asia to identify relevant subsequent research. In addition, a literature search is conducted to locate post-1999 work that has not cited papers from the Special Issue but has investigated the same topic area. Analyzing both sets of work enables an integrated review of the field and aids the identification of future research opportunities. The study covers published research articles and books on professionalization projects in Asia from 1999 to 2018. In this paper, reference to Asia focusses on East Asia (including countries such as China and Japan), South Asia (including countries such as Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka), and South East Asia (including countries such as Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam). Given the elapsed time of near 20 years, there has been sufficient time for research to be published. Therefore, the review focusses on published output only and does not discuss unpublished theses, conference proceedings nor working papers.

First, the Special Issue of AAAJ in 1999 generally adopted a critical lens and studied professionalization as projects of market closure and collective mobility. The corporatist framework of Puxty et al. (1987) provided a useful framing to analyze the influence of states, markets and communities on professionalization. Second, the Special Issue has helped to spur interest in understanding professionalization in the region. Post-1999, there are studies of countries not covered in the Special Issue. Third, the themes identified in the Special Issue continue to be relevant and are examined in post-1999 work: the active role of the state, the legacies of colonization, the activities of transnational accounting bodies; and to a lesser degree, the influence of transnational accounting firms. Finally, future research could usefully focus on: the distinctive and more expansive role of Asian state agencies; the conduct of deeper comparative research; the role of accounting firms in the region; and the impact of transnational agencies such as the International Federation of Accountants and the World Bank.

There are three limitations. First, the review of literature omits unpublished research such as PhD theses and working papers. Second, it focusses only on research published in English. As a result, some work may be excluded. Third, it assesses the contribution of a single issue (i.e. the 1999 AAAJ Special Issue) and does not discuss work that preceded 1999.

This paper is aimed at assessing the impact of the 1999 Special Issue but also presents a wide-ranging analytical review of published research on accounting professionalization in Asia since 1999. The paper identifies several areas for future research and proposes a modified model of state-market-community-profession relations. In particular, the paper emphasizes the large and distinctive roles of Asian state agencies and the activities of transnational actors (both those within the profession as well as those that are external).

This study aims to acquire a better understanding on the characteristics and risks of heavy metals (HMs) in PM_2.5 from an industrial city – Handan, China.

PM_2.5 samples were collected on the basis of daytime and nighttime at the state controlling air sampling site in Handan city. Ten metal elements (V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Rb, Sr, Cd and Ba) in PM_2.5 were determined with an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The pollution levels of metals were characterized by enrichment factors, and the sources of metals were identified with principle component analysis and cluster analysis. The ecological and health risks of metals were assessed using ecological and health risk indexes.

Results showed that the highest and lowest PM_2.5 concentration appeared in winter and summer, respectively. The concentration of PM_2.5 at night was higher than in the daytime in winter, yet it is the opposite in other seasons. The total mass concentration of detected metals was the highest in winter, and the total mass concentration in the daytime was higher than at night in all four seasons. The elements V, Rb, Sr and Ba exhibited a deficient contamination level; Cr, Ni and Cu exhibited a moderate contamination level; while Fe and Cd were at an extreme contamination level. The metals in PM_2.5 originated from a mixture source of fossil fuel combustion and manufacture and use of metallic substances (34.04%), natural source (26.01%) and construction and traffic-related road dust (17.58%). Results from the ecological risk model showed that the ecological risk of metals was very high, especially risks related to Cd. Health risk model presented that both the non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risk coefficients of metals were above the tolerance level of the human body.

The significance of the study is to further know the pollution characteristics of PM_2.5 and related HMs in Handan city, and to provide references for ensuring local resident health and ecological environment.

There is a paucity of knowledge on how visual sensory cues impact consumers’ purchase behaviour and their satisfaction, especially in Ramadhan street food bazaar context. This study aims to investigate the effect of Muslim consumer’s visual sensory cues on Ramadhan street food purchase behaviour and satisfaction.

This study surveyed 367 Malaysian Muslim consumers to depict their purchase behaviour and satisfaction based on visual sensory cues during their visit to the Ramadhan street food bazaar.

The findings show that visual sensory evaluations of texture and appearance influence Ramadhan street food bazaar customers’ purchase behaviour. Meanwhile, visual cues of texture and taste of the street bazaar food significantly influenced satisfaction.

The result offers practice guidelines for small food operators to enhance their product placement and display to encourage consumer purchase behaviour. The findings highlight the importance of visual cues in foodservice businesses and how they affect consumers’ desire to consume Ramadhan street bazaar’s food products.

Paying attention to food presentation would allow the sellers to obtain customers’ attention and purchase intention. Subsequently, it allows the Ramadhan street bazaar food sellers to be more competitive and effective in their business operation techniques and services, eventually impacting their survivability and sustainability.

This study utilised Mehrabian and Russel's stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model to investigate the inter-relationship between perceived social media information qualities (IQ) of online UGC, destination image, perceived travel risk and behavioural intentions.

A total of 255 responses from international tourists were collected. The data collection via an online survey was performed from October 2020 to February 2021. The study model and hypotheses were examined using partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

The result indicated that social media intrinsic, representational, and social IQ significantly influenced tourists perceived cognitive image, while only contextual and social IQ significantly predicted the perceived affective image. This study also confirms the significant effect of cognitive image on the affective image. In addition, the authors found that both destination image components, cognitive and affective, significantly affect tourists' behavioural intentions. However, surprisingly, tourists' perceived travel risk did not moderate the effect of destination image components on behavioural intentions.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge by extending Mehrabian and Russel's SOR model in the tourism behaviour context.

From a practical perspective, this study proves that UGC significantly affects destination image and plays an integral part in luring tourists to visit a destination.

Previous research in this area is limited, making this study particularly novel. This study represents one of the initial attempts to evaluate the dimensions of information quality in UGC on social media and online review platforms, particularly within the field of tourism. Treating online travel UGC seriously could assist organisations in leveraging tourist behaviour and enhancing destination image.

The purpose of this study is to review university social responsibility (USR) using a well-known quantitative approach of bibliometric analysis. Compared to corporate social responsibility (CSR), USR is in its infancy stage, requiring further exploration of its meaning and impact toward higher education institutions (HEIs).

A total of 306 publications and 9,530 cited references were retrieved from the Web of Science database. Bibliographic coupling analysis was applied to uncover present themes, while co-word analysis was used to predict future trends.

Findings suggested that themes are centralized toward the impact of USR on HEIs. USR is important for HEIs to attain excellence in today's challenging business environment.

USR could develop HEIs into world-renowned institutions by establishing a good reputation and engaging with the broader community, locally and internationally. USR is regarded as HEIs' new value proposition in marketing its brand within the competitive environment in higher education.

This study is the first that reviews USR by extracting the knowledge structure and providing visualization on the implicit themes of the subject interest.

This scholarly investigation explores the Malaysian golfers' experience in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia golf courses. The study sheds light on the unique attributes of golf tourism in each country, including the courses, facilities, services and overall golfing experiences offered to golf tourists.

Qualitative data were procured through in-depth semi-structured interviews with a cohort of 13 Malaysian golfers.

The findings indicate that golfers' experiences are affected by the quality of service, facilities, price and course condition, ultimately contributing to their satisfaction level. The evidence suggests that Malaysian golfers are comparatively more satisfied with golf courses in Thailand and Indonesia than in Malaysia.

The study underscores the importance of golf course attributes in retaining existing golfers and enticing new ones. Besides, as comparative research on golf course attributes and destination preferences is scant, this study has far-reaching implications, empowering Malaysian golf course managers to augment the appeal and quality of their golf course destination to optimise the behavioural intentions of golf tourists.

This study investigates the relationship between social commerce adoption determinants, perceived trust and purchase behaviour among pastry product consumers.

The research data were collected using a five-point Likert from 409 pastry consumers through an online survey. Partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was utilised to test the study model and hypotheses.

The study findings indicate that pastry consumers perceived social commerce as effortless, engaging, enjoyable, can be trusted, simple to use and time-saving, motivating them to consume pastry products via social commerce platforms.

This study provides insights and implications for social commerce researchers and marketers related explicitly to perishable products.

This study is one of the few studies that predict and explain the consumer acceptance of social commerce in the pastry products realm. As only a handful of research has endeavoured to research social commerce, this study findings contribute to the conceptualisation of technology acceptance theory by understanding the determinants of social commerce adoption among consumers.

Industry 4.0 or I4.0 has transformed the manufacturing landscape by integrating social and technical factors by means of the sociotechnical framework. However, the sociotechnical aspects of digitalization of total quality management (TQM 4.0), especially in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) remain largely unexplored. This groundbreaking research endeavors to delve into the pivotal role played by social (soft) and technical (hard) TQM 4.0 in driving I4.0 readiness among SMEs.

A research framework has been developed by harnessing the principles of Socio-technical systems (STS) theory. Data collection from a sample of 310 randomly selected SMEs manufacturing in Malaysia through an online survey approach. The collected data is then subjected to analysis using Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) through SmartPLS.

The study findings indicate that both hard and soft TQM 4.0 factors are vital to promoting I4.0 readiness (R² = 0.677) and actual implementation (R² = 0.216). Surprisingly, the findings highlight that customer-related construct has no impact on hard TQM 4.0 attributes. Furthermore, hard TQM 4.0 factors have played a partial mediating role on the relationship of soft TQM 4.0 and I4.0 attributes (20% = VAF = 80%).

This is a novel research as it explores the underexplored domain of sociotechnical aspects of TQM 4.0 within SMEs amid I4.0 transformation. The study distinctive contributes include revealing the pivotal role of both soft and hard TQM 4.0 factors in driving I4.0 readiness, emphasizing the primacy of people-related dimensions for successful implementation in manufacturing SMEs.