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This study explored the experiences and perceptions of stakeholders concerning luxury yachting in the Fiji Islands. It also revealed the facilities provided on luxury yachts, significant challenges faced by stakeholders in the yachting business, major luxury yacht operators and the safety measures in place for the patrons/consumers of luxury yachting.

It employed an exploratory qualitative methodology that incorporated 16 in-depth semi-structured face-to-face interviews with stakeholders in the luxury yachting businesses via contact with superyacht agents. The interview participants for this research were selected based on a non-random sampling technique in the major marinas of the Fiji Islands (i.e. Port Denarau Marina, Copra Shed Marina, Savusavu, Royal Suva Yacht club, and Vuda marina).

Results revealed that the services/facilities provided on luxury yachts are state-of-the-art; however, there is a need to integrate luxury yachting with more personalized, creative, unique and innovative experiences. Findings also suggest the need for government funding for the redevelopment/renovation of some ports and provide skill-based training for yacht employees.

This study contributes to filling some of the gaps in the luxury yachting literature in Fiji and sheds light on stakeholders' perceptions of the amenities offered at marinas and ports, significant challenges in the yachting industry and safety measures in place for patrons.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate student visual literacy skills using the newly designed visual literacy framework and visual literacy (VL) scale.

It includes a newly designed framework, a self-reporting questionnaire and a scale to evaluate an individual's VL skills and overall competency. The self-reporting questionnaire consists of 13 items with a five-point Likert scale.

The newly developed VL skill scale assessed the Fiji students’ competency (i.e. identify, understand, evaluate and communicate using visuals). The mean for the 13 items on VL skills showed average results, but 46.33% recorded high visual literacy competencies. The multiple linear regression analysis outcomes showed all 13 skills demonstrated significant contributions to becoming visually literate.

The limitation of this study is that the questionnaire is self-reporting, so the evaluation can be highly rated. The implications are that relevant stakeholders will be able to devise strategies and content to improve visual literacy in Fiji.

Images are playing an important role today, especially after COVID-19, which forced the education system to go online. Online learning involves a lot of visuals, and as such, visual literacy is important to students so that they can successfully learn online. This paper brings out the important aspects of visual literacy, which needs to be understood by the students.

In society, everything involves visuals. This paper introduces a visual literacy scale and a visual literacy tool to measure the visual competencies of individuals. If people understand the components of visual literacy, then visual competencies of the people will also improve.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first one on evaluating visual literacy competencies in Fiji and also in the South Pacific. The visual literacy tool is also new to the world.

The goal of this article is two-fold. The first is to contribute new insights to inform education policies for addressing the underlying educational inequalities and injustices that are caused by lack of epistemic access in the context of Fiji higher education. The second is to explore how the Grounded Theory Methodology can be applied to longitudinal language testing research that seeks to reverse epistemic injustices and educational inequalities in Fiji and other comparable multilingual countries.

To explore how the Grounded Theory Methodology can be applied to longitudinal language testing research that seeks to reverse epistemic injustices and educational inequalities in Fiji and other comparable multilingual countries. The study was conducted at a university in Fiji where 120 students were sampled at the beginning of the first year and at the end of their first year of university programme. The same cohort was tracked throughout the project, out of which 30 students were interviewed at the end of the first year.

The four indicators include: (1) lack of teaching and learning resources, (2) language barriers, (3) problems with the medium of instruction and (4) shortage of experienced teachers.

Although widely acknowledged in previous studies from elsewhere, the indicators of educational inequalities identified in this study are worth reporting on due to the unique socio-cultural and linguistic context of Fiji.

This study seeks to determine the effect of sustainable practices on willingness to pay a price premium (WTPP) in the hotels and resorts in the Fiji islands. It will also assess how implementing these sustainable practices influences guest re-visit intentions.

A qualitative research technique was used which included in-depth interview sessions with ten Fijian resort managers and 15 hotel guests. The website of Etic Hotels was also used to gather data about the green practices provided by resorts and hotels. A non-random purposive sampling method was used to select respondents.

Results indicate that implementing sustainability practices has significantly and positively affected guest intentions to return to Fijian Hotels and resorts. The results also demonstrated that customers are willing to pay a higher price for the use of environmentally friendly practices in Fiji's hotels and resorts.

Though a few studies have been conducted examining the linkages between sustainable practices and the Fijian hotel industry, this article is a novel exploration of the use of sustainable practices in hotels and resorts and how they influence guest re-visit intentions and WTPP in Fiji Islands.

The purpose of this study is to explore the roles that sociocultural systems such as traditions, religious practices, and rituals play in upholding gender imbalance in Fiji.

This qualitative study relies on results from semi-structured interviews with auditors, educationalists, academics, partners from leading accounting/audit firms, company directors and high-ranked government officers. Thematic analysis was conducted both manually and using MAXQDA software, and the themes that emerged from both analyses are complementary. A few more complementary analyses were also conducted such as Word Cloud.

The results support the claim that the religious traditions and rituals are strongly linked to gender-inequitable beliefs and suggest sociocultural factors impose on women experiencing self-effacing emotions and passive acceptance of lower status, contributing to the persistence of gender inequality. It also emphasizes the need to challenge certain sociocultural practices to promote greater gender equality, which is the theme emerged from thematic analysis. Additionally, this paper proposes four distinct types of attitudes in this regard as self-effacing feminist, self-effacing traditional, self-effacing modesty and talented driven.

Respondents' openness authenticity may be limited by factors like selection bias, small sample size and other potential constraints in this study.

The findings might influence stakeholders to advocate for policy changes to promote women's representation in leadership positions. The results give voice to various segments of society who are advocating greater gender diversity on board representation in Fiji. The themes immerged and theories developed would make a substantial contribution to the existing literature.

The findings highlight the importance of addressing gender inequality in leadership positions to promote inclusive and sustainable growth.

This study sheds light on the less-explored domain of internal barriers to gender equality within Fiji. It adds a novel dimension to the understanding of how cultural norms intersect with individual perceptions to shape gender inequality.

The purpose of this paper is to explicate the links between public pedagogy, ethics of care and storying as a methodology and method in Oceania.

This paper explores the role of extended families as First Teachers in iTaukei and Indo-Fijian Early Childhood contexts in Fiji. Using storying as methodology, the authors, three Australian and four Fijian academics, present three portraits to make visible the pedagogical entanglements of public pedagogy research in diverse community contexts. These portraits reveal the intersection and integration of extended family with the authors' community–family–child–informed pedagogical approaches, and the advantages of culturally located standpoints when working with iTaukei and Indo-Fijian communities. This article's unique contribution lies in its demonstration of the importance of an ethics of care approach in site-specific and contextually emerging pedagogical encounters.

The findings demonstrate the traditional role of First Teachers and carers in iTaukei and Indo-Fijian Early Childhood contexts in Fiji who use arts-based approaches to teaching and learning within a public pedagogical framework.

The implications of the research highlight the need to address policy interventions that disrupt the value of First Teachers in community context and their role in values formations for young people in community.

The implications of the research can be addressed at the policy and international level where considerations of educational arrangements need to be understood.

The social implications of this publication are the value of iTaukei and Indo-Fijian Early Childhood educators in Fiji, and their voices being heard and understood via a published academic journal.

This work is original and is a collaborative paper written between Australian and iTaukei and Indo-Fijian Early Childhood educators.

This paper aims to identify factors that influence customers' panic buying behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 357 participants in Fiji, and structural equation modeling to analyze the collected data.

Results indicate that expected personal outcomes is positively associated with customers' attitudes while expected community-related outcomes negatively impact customers' attitudes. Factors such as attitude, subjective norms, scarcity, time pressure and perceived competition were found to positively influence customers' panic buying intention. Furthermore, scarcity and time pressure were confirmed to positively influence perceived competitiveness while perceived social detection risk negatively influences customer's panic buying intention.

The findings highlight the need for better measures to ensure that every customer has access to goods and services and is not deprived of such necessities in times of a crisis. These results will assist store managers and policymakers in introducing better management, social policies and resource utilization mechanisms to mitigate panic buying during the pandemic.

This study's findings contribute to the literature on customer's panic buying behavior during a global pandemic. Research in this area remain scarce, inconsistent and inconclusive. Novel insights are generated as this study is the first to combine the theory of planned behavior, privacy calculus theory and protection motivation theory. Applying these theories allows new relationships to be tested to better understand customer behavior during a global pandemic. With most studies on customer behavior during crises and disasters in developed countries, this study generates new insights by exploring customer behavior in a developing country.

Discussions about progressive gender reform across Melanesia highlight the need for more gender-inclusive policies and improved conditions for women and girls throughout all sectors. However, for many of these countries, attempts to address the problems are marred by insufficient resources and low prioritization of the issue and traditional, cultural and religious perspectives about gender and gendered roles. This article discusses how police responses are coordinated to address domestic and family violence (DFV) and provides a critical reflection on both internal responses and the complexities of multi-partner operations beyond urban spaces.

This article draws on the findings from a stakeholder engagement focus group with 20 participants from four Melanesian countries – Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu – to provide insight into policing innovations in rural contexts.

There is a need for improved multisector partnerships, increased police presence and greater reliance on indigenous strategies to improve responses to DFV in resource-constrained contexts.

The article provides insight into an under-researched area and makes recommendations for improving responses to DFV in rural areas in small-island developing states.

This paper aims to investigate the practice of accounting in the Seventh-day Adventist church of the Pacific Islands and pays particular attention to the coexisting of two control devices: accounting and religion.

This paper implemented a qualitative field study design collecting interview data from church members from the Solomon Islands, Tonga and Fiji. Data were also collected through focus group discussions, document reviews, website analysis and participant observations. Pierre Bourdieu’s thinking on symbolic violence, doxa and capital are used to interpret the findings.

This paper’s main contribution shows that while there is a divine and profane divide, social agents, given their agency, can move back and forth from one side of the divide to the other. Accounting as a control device does not include features such as faith, which is helpful for decision-making; accordingly, religion is relied upon when it comes to decision-making. In contrast, accounting has features that are useful for stewardship purposes. Accordingly, when it comes to the church’s stewardship function accounting in the form of financial reports is relied upon.

Pacific Island culture almost permeates all facets of life, including church life; however, this study did not clarify this. Later studies can explore the implications of culture on the deployment of accounting in a religious setting.

This rich empirical study describes the control dynamics and the tension between accounting and religion in a religious organisation. Accounting needs to adapt to churches’ unique characteristics, whereby religious/doctrinal beliefs must be accounted for and respected. Unlike in the corporate world, accountants in churches cannot fully practice their training or exercise the kind of influence they usually hold in organisations due to their religious belief systems.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is one of a few studies on the religion-accounting relationship. While the focus of earlier studies was generally on a secular and sacred divide, this study looks at coexisting of accounting and religion. This study adds to the sparse literature on accounting and religion and their controlling influence.

The purpose of this study is to understand the effects of self-risk perception and health consciousness on the intention to purchase organic food. The study also explored external factors, such as social networking, culture and their impact on attitude, self-risk perception and purchasing organic food.

This study uses a quantitative research method to collect data from New Zealand and Fiji (N = 701). The data analysis used the partial least squares path modeling technique (PLS-PM) to test the proposed model.

The empirical results revealed that self-risk perception positively influenced organic food intention. The results show that the health consciousness level strengthens the relationship between self-risk perception, beliefs, values and purchase intention. The health consciousness level dampens the relationship between social networking and purchase intention.

The findings of this study provide valuable insights into the guidance and promotion of Fijian and New Zealand's organic food industry. This study enables marketers to develop health-related promotional tactics to stimulate organic food sales. It gauges organic food promoters to use social media-oriented consumer networking to spread health awareness swiftly.

This comprehensive study extends the literature by scrutinizing the profundity of self-risk perception and health consciousness in influencing and explaining consumers' purchase intentions. Aside from ample growth in the study of organic food purchase intention, which commonly replicates simple relationships, this study ascertains deeper meaning and new relationships to understand the moderating role of health consciousness levels in organic food studies, expanding the theory of planned behavior.