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The study investigates the factors that impact the adoption of learning management systems (LMSs) among educators for effective implementation of open and distance learning (ODL) environment in advanced technological institutes (ATIs).

This study uses the extended technology acceptance model (TAM) and analyses data using the partial least square–based structural equation modelling approach to validate the construct and test proposed hypotheses. Data were collected through an online questionnaire from the respondents.

This study reveals that perceived self-efficacy and job relevance significantly impact perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEU). PU, PEU and service quality significantly impact attitudes of educators, which impact their behavioural intention and actual use of LMS as a chain reaction.

The management should organise hands-on training sessions to improve educators' computer self-efficacy and explain the importance of the LMS and its features to offer an effective ODL environment for delivering high-quality education.

The previous studies focused on LMS use from the students' point of view rather than educators. This study investigates educators' LMS adoption in ATIs using the extended TAM. The findings may be helpful for management to implement an effective ODL environment that offers fully integrated distance learning and e-learning during the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic.

The paper aims to identify and analyze passengers’ riding paths for providing better operational support for digital transformation in megacity metro systems.

The authors develop a method to leverage certain passengers’ deterministic riding paths to corroborate other passengers’ uncertain paths. Using Automatic Fare Collection data and train schedules, a witness model is built to recover the actual riding paths for passengers whose paths are unknown otherwise. The identification and analysis of passenger riding paths between three different types of origin–destination) pairs reveal the complexity of passenger path choice.

The results show that passenger path choice modeling is usually characterized by complexity, experience and partial blindness. Some passengers choose paths that are not optimal due to their experience and limited access to overall metro system information. These passengers could be the subject of improved path guidance in light of riding efficiency improved through digital transformation.

This research contributes to the improvement of metro management and operations by leveraging ongoing digital transformation in megacity metro systems. Based on the riding paths and trip chains of a large number of individual passengers identified by the proposed method, metro operation management could prevent risks in areas with concentrated passenger flow in advance, optimally adjust train schedules on a daily basis and deliver real-time riding guidance station by station, which would greatly improve megacity metro systems’ service safety, quality and operational efficacy over time.

The Covid-19 pandemic has a strong effect on societies, business and consumers. Governments have taken measures to reduce the spread of the pandemic, such as social distancing and lockdowns. The latter has also resulted in a temporary closure of physical stores for “non-essential” retailing. Covid-19 thus has a profound impact on how people live. The period of relative isolation, social distancing and economic uncertainty changes the way we behave. New consumer behaviors span all areas of life, from how we work to how we shop to how we entertain ourselves. These shifts have important implications for retailers. This paper aims to discuss the potential structural effect on shopping behavior and retailing when Covid-19 measures are no longer needed and society moves back to a normal situation.

The paper synthesizes empirical and conceptual literature on the consequences of COVID-19 and introduces a conceptual framework along with a set of predictions that can be investigated with empirical data.

This study suggests that Covid-19 shapes both consumer needs and behavior and how retailers respond to these changes. Moreover, it suggests that this will not only affect market outcomes (i.e. retail sales and market share online) but also firm outcomes (i.e. customer experience, firm sales) and importantly the competition between online and offline retailers.

In the conceptual framework, this study aims to advance knowledge on longer-term outcomes (vs immediate outcomes such as panic buying) and how COVID-19 is changing the competitive landscape of retail.

Following the standard practice of using nutrition claims to denote food functionality, this study empirically explores Chinese consumers’ willingness-to-pay for functional processed meat products by using three nutrition claims (namely “increased calcium,” “containing omega-3”, and “reduced salt”) made on pork sausages. It also aims to outline the typical characteristics of Chinese consumer segments based on preferences.

A choice-based choice experiment is utilized to investigate Chinese consumers’ valuation on attributes of interest regarding functional sausage products. First-hand data was collected in the two cities of Xi'an and Beijing.

There are market potentials for domestic and/or imported functional processed meat products among Chinese consumers. Nutrition claims made on pork sausages are appealing to Chinese consumers, and therefore, monetarily rewarded by them. Being imported from a more developed country of origin could both positively and negatively impact consumers’ WTP for nutrition claims made on pork sausages. Furthermore, specific functional modification strategies should be taken into account when addressing different segments of the Chinese market. In addition, regional impacts between Xi'an and Beijing are implied in terms of consumers’ valuation for functional pork sausages.

Limitations in the current study are mainly two folds. First, the WTP estimation magnitudes are subject to a hypothetical bias by using a stated preference approach. Second, this study only focuses on pork sausages to explore consumers’ perceptions and selects three nutrition claims among many other relevant options.

Implications are provided for meat marketers and for Chinese official food policymakers, such that promoting meat products with a nutrition claim is an attractive marketing strategy for foreign food manufacturers in China, and more reformulated meat products with better nutritional compositions should be allowed in the Chinese market.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this research is the first to fill in the literature blank on investigating the consumers’ valuation for functional meat in the emerging market of China. Because when taking Chinese consumers as a target market and evaluating their perceptions of food quality-related labeling and certifications, the existing literature is mainly limited to topics of product safety, organic/green products, and geographical origins. However, nutrition claims, as marketable credence attributes that associate closely to the main characteristics of the functional food products, have been explored to a much lesser extent among Chinese consumers.

The authors investigate how prices of condominiums are affected by the size of the tenant-owner associations that they belong to.

The authors use data of sold apartments in the Swedish municipality Malmö 2013–2018 and estimate hedonic price regressions. The authors also perform semi-structured interviews with three senior professionals in real estate companies.

The authors find significantly negative relationships between the prices of condominiums and the size of tenant-owner associations. Also, regression results indicate that associations should be no smaller than 6–10 apartments. The interviews support that associations should not be too small or too big. The lower and upper limit was suggested by the respondents to 40–50 and 80–150 apartments, respectively. In these ranges, economies of scale can be achieved, and residents will not lose the sense of community and responsibility.

The authors do not prove causality. Smaller associations may have relatively exclusive common amenities, about which we lack data. The same relationships may not exist in different market conditions.

The authors are not aware of previous studies with the same research question. The size of tenant-owner associations may affect the price through different channels. First, several of the banks in Sweden do not always grant mortgages for condominiums that belong to small associations. Second, larger associations may have better economies of scale and more efficient property management. Third, homeowners may prefer smaller tenant-owned associations, because they may feel less anonymous and provide more influence on common amenities.

This paper applies the decomposition method proposed by Wang et al. (2013), together with the multi-national input-output tables from World Input-Output Database (WIOD) to estimate the value-chain transition in East Asian production network. Specifically, we calculate and examine the domestic value-added absorbed abroad, foreign value-added embodied in country’s gross exports, and vertical specialization measures to explore the relative positions of major East Asian countries in the global production chain over the period of 1995-2011. The analyses are at country-aggregate, country-sector, bilateral-aggregate and bilateral-sector levels. Based on our results, we answer the important question of whether Taiwan and South Korea have used China’s production chains as an intermediary to re-export their products to other countries in the world. Furthermore, we answer the question that over the 1995-2011 periods, have Taiwan and South Korea exploited cheap labor from China to add value to their products before re-exported them to the rest of the world?