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Although governments have used social media platforms to interact with the public in an attempt to minimize anxiety and provide a forum for public discussion during the pandemic, governments require sufficient crisis communication skills to engage citizens in taking appropriate action effectively. This study aims to examine how the National Health Commission of China (NHCC) has used TikTok, the leading short video–based platform, to facilitate public engagement during COVID-19.

Building upon dual process theories, this study integrates the activation of information exposure, prosocial interaction theory and social sharing of emotion theory to explore how public engagement is related to message sensation value (MSV), media character, content theme and emotional valence. A total of 354 TikTok videos posted by NHCC were collected during the pandemic to explore the determinants of public engagement in crises.

The findings demonstrate that MSV negatively predicts public engagement with government TikTok, but that instructional information increases engagement. The presence of celebrities and health-care professionals negatively affects public engagement with government TikTok accounts. In addition, emotional valence serves a moderating role between MSV, media characters and public engagement.

Government agencies must be fully aware of the different combinations of MSV and emotion use in the video title when releasing crisis-related videos. Government agencies can also leverage media characters – health professionals in particular – to enhance public engagement. Government agencies are encouraged to solicit public demand for the specific content of instructing information through data mining techniques.

The purpose of this study is to understand the effect of different brand positions (underdog vs top dog) and comparative advertising on consumers’ brand attitudes. Additionally, this study also aims to demonstrate the effects of inspiration, self-relevance and empathy on the relationship between brand positioning and comparative advertising.

A two-by-three factorial design was employed with brand positions (underdog vs top dog) and three types of comparative advertising (noncomparative, indirect comparative and direct comparative) as the independent variables. Inspiration serves as the mediator, while self-relevance and empathy act as moderators and brand attitude is the dependent variable.

The results show that different brand positions significantly affect brand attitudes, with respondents having a better brand attitude toward the underdog brand. Brand attitude is partially mediated by inspiration. Self-relevance moderates the relationship between brand positioning and brand attitude. However, brand positioning, comparative advertising and empathy do not have interaction effects.

This study contributes to a better understanding of the effect of psychological variables on brand positioning and comparative advertising.

The results suggest that the underdog setting requires a real and honest story because consumers will spot a fake underdog story, which will damage consumer trust in the brand and harm the brand image.

There is a lack of research using psychological variables to demonstrate the effect of being the underdog brand. This study contributes to the literature by employing psychological variables to illustrate the effect of underdog positioning. These findings can help brands develop branding positioning strategies.

Given the scarcity of studies regarding religious food as a destination attraction and limited research on tourist halal food experience, this study aims to explore and compare halal food experience perceived by Muslim and non-Muslim tourists in a non-Islamic destination.

This study was carried out in a halal food street in Yuanjia Village, China. It used a qualitative approach and interviewed 16 Muslim tourists and 20 non-Muslim tourists.

Six themes and 18 attributes of halal food experience were identified. The findings revealed that Muslim tourists saw the reassuring options and religious value of halal food as important experiences. By contrast, the experiences of abundant choices, value for money, sensory pleasure and unique charm were frequently mentioned by non-Muslim tourists. The nature of halal food, the context of China (i.e. Chinese halal food culture) and the feature of research site (i.e. food operation of Yuanjia Village) work together to create such experiences.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to explore and compare halal food experiences of Muslim and non-Muslim tourists in a non-Islamic country (China). This study suggests that halal food could be an appealing destination attraction, even in non-Islamic destinations. Thus, this study contributes to a better understanding of the halal food experiences and assists destination marketers in promoting halal food.

Western manufacturers have often benefited from the Country-of-Origin (COO) effect when a product is launched into emerging markets. The authors examine if this still holds true in the China market. The authors believe that the degree of perceived hedonism associated with the product does matter and, therefore, conducted an experiment to test how this influences the effect of COO on perceived quality and price of the product. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned objective.

A lab experiment with a 2 (COO: Western vs. Local) x 2 (Hedonism: High vs. Low) factorial design was conducted with Chinese consumers as subjects. The dependent variables were perceived quality and price of the products.

It was found that Western COO has a positive effect on the product perceived quality and price in the China market, but the effect was significantly moderated by the degree of perceived hedonism of the products.

The study used an experiment to investigate the different prominence of the COO effect on perceived quality and price in terms of hedonic vs. utilitarian products which has not been done previously. The findings provide implications concerning allocation of marketing resources to product positioning in the presence of different degrees of perceived hedonism and suggest additional areas for future examination.

This study aims to convey the understanding of the ecosystem – how “hundi” works on the border trade between Myanmar and northern Thailand, which is an informal transfer system and is widely used as an alternative banking system. Even though the role of hundi is unable to declare the sources of money under the standard settlement of formal banking system, a failure to operate of its official mechanism are carrying using hundi, as a financial platform across the border between Thailand and Myanmar. This study surveys the best practice mechanism for the regional and international cooperation.

This paper draws on relevant literature, open-source reporting, and interviews with more than 30 interviewees on the border between Thailand and Myanmar. Interviewees includes border-trader, money changer, money transfer operators, business leaders, hundi operators, immigrant labors, government officials and commercial banking staffs.

This study provides a unique insight of hundi system, which work as the alternative mode of formal banking. It is an informal fund transfer payment platform used on the border between Thailand and Myanmar in the past five decades. It insists that hundi plays a significant role in both substitution and complementary on the trade and payment across the border of Myanmar–Thailand. Even though confronting with the barriers of financing of terrorism (anti money laundering AML/combating the financing of terrorism CFT) risk, the competition with the expanding and modernizing formal banking sector, and the introduction of Fintech and mobile money services. In the short term, these are unlikely to eliminate the hundi system completely, but may instead push hundi operators towards adopting these networks and technologies in their own operations.

This paper will be a useful source for academics, development professionals, policymakers, law enforcement agencies and business actors who are seeking to understand Myanmar’s informal payment system, hundi.

This is the latest work for border trade payment or trade financing role of hundi which has hidden under the informal market of the border for several decades. It has few research of hundi on border trade and payment, particularly after the military coup in 2021 which made hundi return to be on the spotlight and simultaneous mechanism of border trade and payment ecosystem of Myanmar. This paper will be a useful source for academics, development professionals, policymakers, law enforcement agencies and business actors who are eager to understand Myanmar’s informal payment system, hundi, especially during the hardship.

This paper takes Chinese A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2021 as research samples to investigate the influence of supplier concentration on debt maturity structure and its mechanism. It further analyzes whether the relationship between the two is different in the case of different monetary policies, collateral assets, and total debt. The research conclusion is of practical significance for enterprises to construct a balanced debt maturity structure and prevent financial risks.

This paper adopts the empirical research method. The data came from the CSMAR database, which eliminated ST and *ST and companies with missing data, resulting in a sample of 20,328. Stata16 was used for statistical analysis.

There is an inverted U-shaped relationship between supplier concentration and debt maturity structure, and market position and trade credit play an intermediary role. In the case of tight monetary policy, fewer collateral assets, and higher total debt, the inverse U-shaped relationship is more significant.

This paper examines the relationship between supplier concentration and debt maturity structure from a non-linear perspective for the first time, providing theoretical support for enterprises to form a reasonable debt structure, and deepening the theoretical cognition of the relationship between supplier concentration and corporate debt maturity structure.

The normalization of COVID-19 disease prevention has presented a major opportunity for the transformation and upgrade of cultural and tourism products in Taiwan. This paper aims to explore the attractiveness of Taiwanese military dependents’ villages, known as juancun, two studies were conducted to test the path relationships of juancun experiencescape, authenticity, memorability and revisit intention.

This research conducted two studies by using a mixed sampling of snowball sampling and purposive sampling for the questionnaire survey. Based on the 397 valid questionnaires retained in Study 1, a cultural heritage site experiencescape was developed and validated; in Study 2, 393 valid questionnaires were collected, and structural equation modeling was conducted to test hypotheses that were developed drawing on the stimulus–organism–response model and theory of buyer behavior.

It is revealed that cultural heritage site experiencescape include natural and cultural, social, sensory and functional factors and that the experiencescape affects authenticity positively; “existential authenticity–memorability” mediates the relationship of experiencescape and revisit intention, whereas co-creation behavior has the positive moderating effects on the relationship of experiencescape and authenticity.

The research developed an experiencescape scale for cultural heritage sites and described the managerial implications for destination management organizations regarding product development and service design.

COVID-19疫情防控的常态化为台湾的文化和旅游产品升级转型提供了巨大的契机。为了明确台湾眷村的旅游吸引力, 本研究操作两个研究设计以检定眷村体验景观、真实性、难忘性及重游意图之间的路径关系。

本研究操作的两个研究设计皆采用滚雪球抽样和目的性抽样的混合抽样方法进行问卷调查。基于研究设计一回收的397份有效问卷, 发展和验证了眷村文化遗产地体验景观量表; 运用研究设计二回收的393份有效问卷, 操作结构方程模型分析以检定基于刺激-机体-反应理论和买方行为理论发展的假设。

本研究揭示了文化遗产地体验景观包含自然与文化、社会、感官、功能性因素; 体验景观正向影响真实性; “存在主义真实性-难忘性”中介调节体验景观和重游意图的关系; 共创行为正向调节体验景观与真实性的关系。

本研究发展了文化遗产地体验景观量表, 并就产品发展和服务设计为旅游目的地管理组织提供了实务建议。

Esta investigación llevó a cabo dos estudios mediante un muestreo mixto de bola de nieve y muestreo intencionado para la encuesta por cuestionario. A partir de los 397 cuestionarios válidos retenidos en el Estudio 1, se desarrolló y validó el experiencescape del patrimonio cultural; en el Estudio 2, se recogieron 393 cuestionarios válidos y se realizó un modelado de ecuaciones estructurales para probar las hipótesis que se desarrollaron a partir del modelo estímulo-organismo-respuesta y la teoría del comportamiento del comprador.

La normalización de la prevención de la enfermedad COVID-19 ha supuesto una gran oportunidad para la transformación y mejora de los productos culturales y turísticos de Taiwán. Para explorar el atractivo de las aldeas de los familiares de militares en Taiwan, conocidos como juancun, se realizaron dos estudios para probar las relaciones de trayectoria del experiencescape del juancun, la autenticidad, la memorabilidad y la intención de volver a visitarlo.

Se revela que el experiencescape del patrimonio cultural de la aldea militar incluye factores naturales y culturales, sociales, sensoriales y funcionales, y que el experiencescape afecta positivamente a la autenticidad; la “autenticidad existencial-memorabilidad” media en la relación del experiencescape y la intención de volver a visitarlo, mientras que el comportamiento de cocreación tiene los efectos moderadores positivos en la relación del experiencescape y la autenticidad.

La investigación desarrolló una escala de experiencescape para el patrimonio cultural del sitio y describió las implicaciones gerenciales para las organizaciones de gestión de destinos en relación con el desarrollo de productos y el diseño de servicios.

The aim of the work is to investigate structural behaviour of reinforced concrete (RF) beam retrofitted with basalt fibre (BF) fabric. The incorporation of BF showed enhancement in bending strength, to increase confinement and to repair damages caused by cracking. In the early decades, using BF for composite materials shaped BF as an excellent physical substance with necessary mechanical properties, highlighting the significant procedures ability.

Specimens were casted with U-wrapped BF and then evaluated based on flexural tests. In the test carried over for flexural fortifying assessment, BF reinforcements demonstrated a definitive quality improvement in the case of the subjected control sample; ultimately, the end impacts depend upon the applied test parameters. From the outcomes introduced in this comparison, for the double-wrapped sample, the modifications improved by 12% than that of the single-wrapped beam, which is identified to subsist for a better strengthening of new-age retrofitting designs.

The current research deals with the retrofitting of RC beam by conducting a comparative experiment on wrapping of BF (single or double BF wrapping) in improving the mechanical behavior of concrete.

It can be shown from the experimental results that increasing the number of layers has significant effect on basalt strengthened beams.

The purpose of this research is to propose and empirically validate a theoretical framework to investigate the willingness of the elderly to disclose personal health information (PHI) to improve the operational efficiency of AI-integrated caregiver robots.

Drawing upon Privacy Calculus Theory (PCT) and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), 274 usable responses were collected through an online survey.

Empirical results reveal that trust, privacy concerns, and social isolation have a direct impact on the willingness to disclose PHI. Perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived usefulness (PU), social isolation, and recognized benefits significantly influence user trust. Conversely, elderly individuals with pronounced privacy concerns are less inclined to disclose PHI when using AI-enabled caregiver robots.

Given the pressing need for AI-enabled caregiver robots due to the aging population and a decrease in professional human caregivers, understanding factors that influence the elderly's disclosure of PHI can guide design considerations and policymaking.

Considering the increased demand for accurate and comprehensive elder services, this is the first time that information disclosure and AI-enabled caregiver robot technologies have been combined in the field of healthcare management. This study bridges the gap between the necessity for technological improvement in caregiver robots and the importance of transparent operational information by disclosing the elderly's willingness to share PHI.

This study explores the intricate relationship between inventory leanness, financial constraints and digital transformation in listed Chinese manufacturing firms.

Using a large panel data collected from 2,563 Chinese listed manufacturing enterprises over the period from 2012 to 2021, this research employs the instrumental variable method combined with two-stage least squares estimators to explore the U- shaped relationship between inventory leanness and financial constraints. Furthermore, the moderating role of digital transformation is demonstrated.

Contrary to traditional assumptions, our research uncovers a U-shaped relationship between inventory leanness and financial constraints, indicating that excessive inventory reduction can exacerbate financial constraints. Digital transformation plays a significant moderating role, particularly in highly digitalized environments.

Our findings have practical significance for top managers and policymakers. We advocate for a balanced approach to lean inventory management to mitigating financial constraints. The study emphasizes the pivotal role of digital transformation in alleviating the impact of inventory leanness on financial constraints, highlighting the need for digital transformation strategies.

This research provides a comprehensive analysis of inventory leanness, financial constraints and digital transformation dynamics. It challenges conventional thinking by revealing the nonlinear nature of the inventory leanness–financial constraints relationship. The concept of moderation highlights the moderating effect of digital transformation. This study offers practical guidance for practitioners and policymakers.