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The purpose of this paper is to synthesize porous zinc oxide (ZnO) by means of strain etching/wet chemical etching method with the use of 0.5% of nitric acid (HNO₃) etchant. The structural and surface morphological properties of the samples are accessed by using X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) characterization techniques.

ZnO samples used in this work were deposited on the p‐Si (111) substrates by using radio frequency (RF) sputtering technique. Wet chemical etching processes with the use of 0.5% HNO₃ etchant was applied on these samples in order to obtain porous structure. The porous ZnO samples are characterized by means of XRD and SEM to access their structural and surface morphological properties.

The XRD and SEM cross‐sectional measurements revealed that the thickness of the etched ZnO thin films is proportional to the etching time. SEM micrographs show that the surface morphology of ZnO changes over etching time. On the other hand, XRD results indicate that the crystallite sizes of the ZnO(002) decreases when the etching time increases.

The paper shows how porous ZnO thin films have been successfully synthesized by using simple wet chemical etching. SEM images reveal that this method is reliable when producing porous structure ZnO surfaces.

The purpose of this paper is to use the recent development in unit root tests and cointegration as applied to panel data and dynamic time series, to estimate the relationship between financial liberalization, financial development and growth.

The paper assesses the dynamics of the relationship between financial development, financial liberalization and growth using the latest dynamic panel data framework and time series analyses comprising up to 15 Sub‐Saharan African countries with annual observations over the period of 1976‐2005. The research uses various measures of, or proxies for, financial intermediary development, including ratio of private sector credit and share of domestic credit to income.

The results obtained from a heterogenous panel investigation and time series methodology such as Granger causality, indicate a long‐run equilibrium relationship between financial development and economic growth. This is consistent with the view that financial development can act as an “engine of growth” and plays a crucial role in the process of economic development. However, there is little evidence to support the hypothesis that financial liberalization directly “leads” growth.

Group mean panel fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and country‐by‐country time series investigations show evidence of causality running from financial development to growth. The analysis yielded limited evidence of financial liberalization Granger‐causing economic growth. However, this is not to say that financial liberalization does not promote growth, as it could do so indirectly through fostering financial development.

The purpose of this study is to examine oil price shocks on US shale oil supply and energy security during the period 2000q1–2020q4.

In this study, the Shannon–Wiener index was used to calculate energy security, and then a structural vector autoregression (VAR) was applied to measure the effect of oil price shocks.

The results of the variance decomposition indicate that oil prices account for about 20% of changes in US shale oil production, while it explains only about 3% of changes in energy security. Finally, historical decomposition confirms the results of impulse response functions.

The novelty of this study is that so far, no study has examined the effect of oil price shock on shale oil production and energy security in the USA using the structural VAR model. This study also used the latest Shannon–Wiener index as a measure of energy security in the USA. The reason for selecting this index is that, in addition to considering the share of the total consumption of each primary energy, the share of energy imports from each country as well as the political risk of energy exporting countries to the USA are also included.

The purpose of this study is to investigate airline users' microblog postings pertaining to their travel‐related information exchange so as to assess their wants, preferences and feedback about airline products and services. Examining such real‐time information exchange is important as users rely on this for various purposes such as seeking help and evaluating the airline services before purchasing.

This study uses Twitter, a popular microblog service. An analysis of 8,978 postings that mention three specific airlines – i.e. Malaysia Airlines, Jet Blue and Southwest – as well as 260 airline postings on their official Twitter accounts is undertaken. The types of postings were ascertained via content analysis. Additionally, the postings were also analyzed to uncover types of communication exchanges between airlines and their users.

The findings suggest that microblogs were primarily used to share compliments, while airlines used microblogs mainly for marketing. Other uses such as sharing general information, asking questions and providing personal updates were also uncovered. Additionally, a high number of attention‐seeking postings were found that highlighted user issues and concerns. Further, the airlines being studied did not appear to be as responsive to users' postings as expected.

The findings broaden the understanding of what users frequently discuss on microblogs when they communicate about airlines. Next, this study indicates that users adopt microblogs to offer recommendations and share their concerns so that their communication can reach airlines in near real‐time. Moreover, this study also suggests that airlines could incorporate this medium for customer relationship management to better meet the needs of their customers.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of augmented reality (AR) media characteristics on consumers’ purchase intention (PI) for fashion goods within the fashion industry context.

This study establishes five independent variables of salient AR media characteristics derived from existing studies which includes interactivity, vividness, augmentation, simulated physical control and environmental embedding. A quantitative online survey method is conducted with a sample of 172 respondents.

The findings suggest that all five AR media characteristics have a positive and significant influence on consumers’ PI for fashion goods. Among these five characteristics, interactivity and simulated physical control have the strongest positive impact on PI, followed by vividness, environmental embedding and augmentation.

This study provides valuable insights for fashion brands to better understand the media characteristics that consumers may be looking out for in AR experiences that could have an influence on their PI for fashion goods. This study also contributes to the literature by identifying the most influential AR media characteristics in the context of the fashion industry.

The focus of this study lies in understanding the extrinsic vs intrinsic motivators which drive the m-coupon sharing behaviour in social networking sites (SNSs). A consumer can make promotional tool (in our case m-coupons) viral if the cues trigger an apt motivation. This study fills the need gap by identifying which motivations must be focused to make a promotional tool viral by the consumer especially in an emerging economy like India.

We designed conceptual framework based on extensive literature review and employed hierarchal regression methodology to investigate the motivation to share m-coupon.

Sense of self-worth, Socializing and Reciprocity emerge as strong reasons for a consumer to share m-coupons amongst friends and peers in SNS. Results have shown that intrinsic motivation works very effectively when a consumer shares m-coupons in SNSs.

This study has certain limitations. First, the impact of age, gender and education can also influence the results as perception evolves with age and education. Second, in our study, we have not classified m-coupons in different categories. Different types of m-coupons may have a different impact on consumers.

The paper presents findings, which are useful for marketers to develop a customer-centric viral promotional strategy.

This study is one of the few studies in integrating types of motivation with coupon proneness and coupon sharing in social media. This study has specifically targeted the emerging economy where m-coupons usage has seen a surge. Study has shown that it is the intrinsic motivation which is very crucial for encouraging consumer for participating in SNSs and share e-word of mouth amongst friends and peers.

Research abounds highlighting the differences between males and females when they travel. Even in business travel, these differences have been acknowledged, with suppliers and marketers spending significant money to develop and market products to accommodate them. The purpose of this study is to ascertain whether differences exist in terms of mobile application usage between male and female business travellers.

A mixed method approach is followed. An internet-based survey is distributed and in-depth interviews conducted with South African business travellers. The Mann–Whitney U-test is used to test the differences between males and females and their mobile application usage. Content analysis is used to analyse the interviews.

The results show that mobile applications are perceived as more important by females than males in all the phases of the travel cycle, although most of these differences in perceived importance were not significant.

Owing to the online data-collection method and the self-selective process, the findings cannot be generalised to the global population of business travellers who use mobile applications.

The results should caution corporate organisations, travel management companies and their application developers not to spend unnecessary technological and financial resources on developing applications to accommodate differences between males and females, which might not exist. Companies should rather spend money on developing applications that will enhance and add convenience to the business traveller’s experience.

The main contribution of this study lies in investigating the applications market, particularly in the context of business travel. Applications focussed on specific sectors of the tourism industry, such as business travel applications, serve business travellers differently from generic travel applications. This research examines business travel-specific applications and expands the scale and scope of the enquiry, concentrating on the travellers’ view.

本论文主要研究男人和女人在旅游中的行为区别。特别是在商务旅游中, 男女差别确实存在, 这也验证了供应商和营销商在开发营销产品中的针对性和区别性。本论文旨在验证是否男女商务旅游者对使用移动APP存在区别。

本论文采用混合采样方法。采样方式通过网络问卷和深度访谈, 采样群体为南非商务游客。本论文采取Mann–Whitney U检验来测试男女在移动APP使用上的区别。本论文还采取文本分析法来分析访问数据。

研究结果表明女性游客在各个旅游阶段都比男性游客对移动APP更看重, 而这些区别在统计计算上并没有获得显著效果。

由于线上采样和自助问卷的采样限制, 研究结果不能推广到全球商务旅客对于使用移动APP的态度。

研究结果可以警示企业机构、旅游管理公司、以及APP开发商不要花费不必要的科技和财力资源来迎合男女受众的需求。因为这个区别可能不存在。公司应该花费财力在开发APP上, 使得商旅客人的使用体验更加便捷。

本论文最重要的贡献就是研究了商旅APP市场。商旅APP区分于普通旅游APP。我们的研究检验了商旅客人APP以及扩展其度量和研究视野到旅游者的角度。

移动设备， 性别， 商务旅行， 商务旅行周期， 商务旅客， 移动商务旅行应用

This study aims to understand how female globally mobile employees (GMEs), a group that is gaining a stronger presence in global work, exert their career agency within the context of structural constraints.

Using theoretical perspectives of career-agency theory and person-environment fit as frames of reference, this study collected 113 blog posts written by 19 female GMEs and conducted semi-structured interviews with 11 female GMEs who are currently living and working in Japan.

This study found that the informants exercised career agency as a response to challenges related to foreignness and gender. Through career-related agentic behaviors, the informants strove to increase their fit with their environments while interacting with different aspects of structural constraints. This study also found that people in different stages of global mobility exhibited different mindsets toward their foreignness, consequently influencing their career agency.

This study highlights the dynamic interaction between structural constraints and the agency of female GMEs, advancing the understanding of career agency in women’s global work. In addition, it recognizes the presence of expatriate residents as a distinct subgroup within the GME population, shedding light on the evolving ambiguous boundaries between self-initiated expatriates and other talent categories.