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The e-freight program launched by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has gradually become a standard specification for international air freight operations. This study examined critical factors affecting air freight forwarders’ decision to adopt the IATA e-freight using a technology-organization-environment model with air freight forwarders in Taiwan as the base. Our findings show that ‘information technology (IT) competence’, ‘trading partner pressure’, ‘government policy’ and ‘competitive pressure’ all have significant positive effects on air freight forwarders’ decision to adopt the e-freight and the top three factors among these are ‘government funding’, ‘government’s active promotion’ and ‘government’s requirement of electronic air waybill (e-AWB)’. Finally, this study proposes strategies that can encourage air freight forwarders to decide on e-freight adoption for the information of relevant oK regyawniozradtison International Air Transport Association (IATA); IATA e-freight; Technology organization environment model; Air freight forwarder

The purpose of this paper is to advocate the emerging trend of wellness tourism in an urban setting. Cities, with dense population and hectic pace of living, pose some challenges on mental health to dwellers. Meanwhile, the populated characteristic of cities opens up opportunities for economic activity, in particular wellness tourism. To comply with the “travel to feel ‘well” trend, product offerings and demand of wellness tourism in urban tourism destinations are yet to be enumerated. The trend paper offers research insights for future investigation.

The ideas presented in the trend paper are inspired by the personal observation of the author from both scholarly and grey literature.

The research directions are delineated in the supply and demand facets. In the demand side, the motivations and behaviors of wellness tourist exerted rooms for examination. Their experiences on wellness tourism could possibly extend to the long-term influence on the cognitive, affective and behavioral changes of individuals. From the supply perspective, the current demarcation of wellness tourism is yet to be explored. Intangible supply associated with wellness tourism, namely, event and dining experiences have been ignored in scholarly studies. A fresh review of the topic from socio-cultural perspective is also viable.

The rise of urbanization and visitor arrivals to cities is expected in foreseeable future. To the best of the author’s knowledge, research insights on wellness tourism in the urban context are still at infancy. The insights on the trend paper are consolidated from a wide range of scholarly and grey literature in a holistic manner.

Since its development by Tinbergen (1962), the gravity model of international trade has widely been applied to analyse the effect of various factors on trade relationships between countries. Past studies on trade gravity vary not only in the mix of model variables but also in how they have come into the analysis. This study reviews existing literature on bilateral trade with an aim to identify influential predictors such as changes of trade policy and national development strategy and highlight important yet understudied factors such as transport and logistics infrastructure, and sustainable development. To demonstrate the needs to examine these critical factors across industry sectors, the study presents the case of textiles and clothing (T&C) production and trade between China and its trading partners as an illustration. Through the literature review, it shows how the gravity model can be applied to address current issues in international trade arena such as the potential trade war between the US and China, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and other important factors shaping global T&C trade. This study offers future research directions for analysis of global trade in the T&C industry and contributes to the wider literature of international business and trade.

Competition among higher education institutions has pushed universities to expand their competitive advantages. Based on the assumption that the core functions of universities are academic, understanding the teaching–learning process with the help of student evaluation of teaching (SET) would seem to be a logical solution in increasing competitiveness. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The current paper presents a narrative literature review examining how SETs work within the concept of service marketing, focusing specifically on the search, experience, and credence qualities of the provider. A review of the various factors that affect the collection of SETs is also included.

Relevant findings show the influence of students’ prior expectations on SET ratings. Therefore, teachers are advised to establish a psychological contract with the students at the start of the semester. Such an agreement should be negotiated, setting out the potential benefits of undertaking the course and a clear definition of acceptable performance within the class. Moreover, connections should be made between courses and subjects in order to provide an overall view of the entire program together with future career pathways.

Given the complex factors affecting SETs and the antecedents involved, there appears to be no single perfect tool to adequately reflect what is happening in the classroom. As different SETs may be needed for different courses and subjects, options such as faculty self-evaluation and peer-evaluation might be considered to augment current SETs.

The paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the drivers for the use of Industry 4.0 technologies by investigating (1) what motivates companies to consider using I4 technologies and (2) what enables (or hinders) the intention to use I4 technologies to translate into their actual use.

The study uses survey data collected from a sample of export-oriented manufacturing companies with more than 10 employees. Final analysis is conducted on 124 companies.

The results show that companies are proactively approaching I4. Only efficiency motives and expected competitive advantage have a positive effect on the intention to use I4 technologies, which in turn positively influences their actual use. The external, legitimacy-based, motives do not play a significant role in explaining the intention to use. With respect to I4 technology enablers, employee competency positively moderates and availability of finance negatively moderates the relationship between intention to use and actual use.

The work extends the existing knowledge base on I4 technology drivers in companies that are not major global trendsetters but are heavily embedded in the value chains of companies from the most industrially developed economies. The study is limited to manufacturing companies in a small European economy and should be retested in other contexts.

The study can help managers implement I4 technologies in their companies more successfully.

We take a novel research approach by proposing a framework that clearly distinguishes between motives and enablers for the use of I4 technologies.

This study aims to explore how learners prefer to interact with microlearning videos. Microlearning is an emerging topic in work-based learning, and the benefits of using video in supporting learning have been widely discussed. However, only very few of previous works were conducted on discussing how learners prefer to interact with microlearning video. This paper aims to fill this knowledge gap.

A questionnaire was used in this study for data collection purposes. In total, the invitation had been sent to 236 enrolled learners from the three targeted modules through emails. A total of 77 participants completed the survey with the response rate of 32.6%. The chi-square test is used in this study in order to conclude whether the findings from the sample related to hypotheses are statistically significant.

By analysing primary data collected from a United Kingdom (UK) university, the findings suggest that 1) the perceived usefulness of the control functions and the expression functions of multimedia microlearning videos are generally high and 2) more participants, on the one hand, prefer to have more control in their multiple-choice questions’ arrangement and open-ended questions’ arrangement; on the other hand, there was no significant difference on the preference of when to attempt assessment.

This is the first time that a study like this had been conducted to review and discuss the interactive preferences between learners and multimedia microlearning. This study could shed some lights on future research in the field of microlearning and work-based learning.

This research attempts to reveal ways of addressing challenges in open universities related to empowering lifelong learning; establishing policies and strategies in dropouts, student portfolio and support services for students with special needs; and implementing online instructional design and strategies. Two institutions were investigated, namely National Open University (NOU) Taiwan and Universitas Terbuka (UT) Indonesia, both founded in the 1980s to serve lifelong learners with diverse backgrounds and needs. This study was aimed at understanding good practices and challenges for improvement for the two open universities in those areas being investigated.

This research was qualitative using document analysis along with focus group discussions and interviews with administrators, academic staff, students and alumni to collect data for analysis.

Lifelong learning is the necessity of individual in societies for continuing professional development through enabling access to quality university education. Open universities have been tasked to cater for lifelong learners using non-traditional approaches, new technology and adapting to online learning and teaching in digital age. This research was exploratory, and the findings were expected to improve understanding of lifelong learning in open universities, particularly in NOU and UT.

Findings of this research are relevant to open universities to enhance its missions and define its possible new roles to serve lifelong learners.

This research reveals the roles of open universities in lifelong learning and enhances understanding of open universities that have a wide range of responsibilities in offering programs and courses to accommodate lifelong learners.

Using a Southeast Asian context, this paper asks a question that has seldom been researched: Is there a divergence between parents’ and their college-going children’s perceptions of education and employability at a time of rapid economic change? If such a divergence exists, it would have hidden costs for the children. Parents’ choice of professions no longer in demand when their children reach working age can permanently damage the latter’s earning power. Also, parents’ choice of fields of study that their children are not proficient or interested in jeopardizes the latter’s chances of success in their studies. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Data were collected using mixed methods, a combination of structured online questionnaires from two local special-purpose sample surveys conducted by the authors, and follow-up interviews. Graduate Employment Survey 2 (GES2) was the second of a three-phase British Council-sponsored study, focusing on TNE, that used a structured online questionnaire for students of several tertiary education institutions, both in the public and private sectors, and for several group interviews of students in 2015. A structured questionnaire was also administered to a small number of parents.

In terms of employment, the rankings of HEIs by parents and students were generally consistent. Study in foreign HEIs abroad has the highest likelihood of employment. Branch campuses were ranked next highest. Despite this, of interest is the difference in mean scores between first and second ranked HEIs. Whereas students rate branch campuses as not much inferior to foreign university campuses, parents see a major gulf between them – they rate foreign campuses more highly than branch campuses more poorly. This difference is likely caused by parents’ traditional preference for foreign study over local, coupled with a lack of TNE knowledge.

A fundamental issue of perception is how parents and students see the role of education. Is education a destination or is education a journey? This disconnect has consequences. Given the shifting nature of employment, the need for transferable skills and the fact that some of the jobs that the next generation will be doing are not even known today, parental advice based on what they know may not do justice to their children’s choice of career. Likewise, the approach of TNE to promote traditional degrees to job paths is also a conventional approach that has a limited shelf life.

The role of parents in education choice has received surprisingly scant academic attention. With technological change driving product and service innovation ever more rapidly, previously unknown types of work have emerged in a relatively short span of time. In this situation, the risk of mismatched perceptions between parents and their children, whose educational experience spans a generation, is becoming increasingly real. While most studies of a parental role have been undertaken for Western countries, there is much less research on East Asian parents’ role in their children’s education.

This study aims to investigate the motivations for the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies among manufacturing firms in developing economies. Specifically, the effects of relative advantage of the technologies, competitive pressure, and government support on the adoption are explored. Moreover, the mediating role of top management support between environmental factors (government support and competitive pressure) and the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies is examined.

A research model is developed based on the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework strengthened by institutional theory. Structural equation modeling (SEM) approach is employed to evaluate the model using data obtained from 215 manufacturing firms through a cross-industry survey. Additionally, a post-hoc analysis is conducted using cluster analysis and ANOVA.

The results show that competitive pressure and government support significantly promote top management support, which in turn contributes to the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies. Relative advantage of the technologies is not significantly related to the adoption.

This study does not explore the relationship between technology type and the specific needs of manufacturing firms. Future researchers can conduct a more comprehensive analysis by examining how different technology types align with the unique needs of individual companies.

The findings of this study have implications for both policymakers and managers. Policymakers can leverage these insights to understand the underlying motivations behind manufacturing firms' adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies and develop promoting policies. In turn, managers should keep an eye on government policies and utilize government support to facilitate technology adoption.

This study uncovers the underlying motivations—government support and competitive pressure—for the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies among manufacturing firms in developing economies. Meanwhile, it complements previous research by showing the mediating role of top management support between environmental factors (government support and competitive pressure) and the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies.

Blended learning evolved from educational technology and it connects learning in and beyond the classroom. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) is a framework for blended learning from a socio-constructivist perspective in which learning is based on educational experiences in the environment with collaboration and interaction. The purpose of this paper is to explore student experience in a blended learning course from the viewpoint of the CoI. A case study approach using qualitative methods is used in the research. By examining the experiences of the students, social presence, cognitive presence and teaching presence were found. Although these three elements are required for educational experiences in blended learning, an unexpected issue about students' learning in the community without teaching presence was identified. This paper suggests that the role of learning autonomy and its relation to the community should be considered in the CoI framework. The value of this paper is that it confirms the elements in the CoI and proposes the addition of a new element in the framework.