Search results

The purpose of this review paper is to investigate the consequences of tourism development and economic growth within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, focusing specifically on Lao PDR post-pandemic. The adverse effect of COVID-19 on tourism and economic sectors has been pervasive across the ASEAN region, with varying degrees of impact. Some of these difficulties are set to continue, though there are positive signs of recovery and of the resilience of the tourism industry. Utilising case material from Lao PDR in Southeast Asia – an area frequently neglected in tourism studies – the paper sheds light on the post-pandemic landscape to address existing gaps in the current literature.

A case study approach was taken in this review paper, utilising secondary data such as media reports, official reports from Tourism Laos and international governing bodies like United Nations and the World Bank to form a viewpoint discussion in the Lao PDR post-pandemic condition.

This paper reveals that contrary to a long period of recovery post-pandemic, there has been a degree of continuity from the pre-pandemic period. Considerable numbers of backpackers have returned to Vang Vieng, along with Vientiane and Luang Prabang. While the pre-pandemic emphasis on mass tourism persists, there is also an increased focus on regional and domestic markets. Laos, with its strategic location and cross-border connections, aims to take advantage of this shift.

The paper highlights a detailed exploration of the Lao tourism industry post-pandemic. It goes beyond the initial expectations in literature of a complete transformation post-pandemic, highlighting the continuity in visitor sources and traditional tourist attractions. It emphasises the Lao PDR strategic position for market reorientation, providing insight into the nation’s adaptive strategies and a nuanced perspective on the evolving landscape of Lao tourism.

Agricultural and food systems in the Mekong Region are undergoing transformations because of increasing engagement in international trade, alongside economic growth, dietary change and urbanisation. Food systems approaches are often used to understand these kinds of transformation processes, with particular strengths in linking social, economic and environmental dimensions of food at multiple scales. We argue that while the food systems approach strives to provide a comprehensive understanding of food production, consumption and environmental drivers, it is less well equipped to shed light on the role of actors, knowledge and power in transformation processes and on the divergent impacts and outcomes of these processes for different actors. We suggest that an approach that uses food systems as heuristics but complements it with attention to actors, knowledge and power improves our understanding of transformations such as those underway in the Mekong Region. The key transformations in the region include the emergence of regional food markets and vertically integrated supply chains that control increasing share of the market, increase in contract farming particularly in the peripheries of the region, replacement of crops cultivated for human consumption with corn grown for animal feed. These transformations are increasingly marginalising small-scale farmers, while at the same time, many other farmers increasingly pursue non-agricultural livelihoods. Food consumption is also changing, with integrated supply chains controlling substantial part of the mass market. Our analysis highlights that theoretical innovations grounded in political economy, agrarian change, development studies and rural livelihoods can help to increase theoretical depth of inquiries to accommodate the increasingly global dimensions of food. As a result, we map out a future research agenda to unpack the dynamic food system interactions and to unveil the social, economic and environmental impacts of these rapid transformations. We identify policy and managerial implications coupled with sustainable pathways for change.

In the following, the region of Southeast Asia will be introduced by offering an overview of the recent developments regarding demographic transition, socioeconomic change, social inequality and the diversification of migration patterns. We will sketch out, how young people fare in the face of these conditions, especially with regard to their own or their families' mobilities. Finally, the four contributions of this section, each reflecting a specific context of Southeast Asia's transnational societies and the related intergenerational dynamics, will be introduced.

This chapter explores the empirical and empathetic approaches employed by a group of fieldworkers from Japan who collaborated with individuals from different parts of Southeast Asia. Their objective was to address shared societal challenges and mentor the next generation of future talents. Additionally, research administrators at Kyoto University conducted an online survey and organized study group meetings focused on Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) coordination, engaging approximately 700 partners in ASEAN. While formal job guidelines for hiring full-time research administrators are rare in the region, many researchers and government officials in ASEAN recognised the importance of these coordination skills and values in advancing STI projects. Coordinating ASEAN-Japan projects has demonstrated that practical experiences with skilled professionals and strong interpersonal skills aligned with Asian cultural values that prioritize conscience and altruism. As a next step, the region will require appropriate human resource training and assessment programs tailored to local STI needs.

This research investigates how subsidy programs in Vietnam's residential electricity market affect consumers' well-being.

Two perspectives are employed: cash transfer and quantity-based subsidy. The effectiveness of cash transfer is measured in three ways: benefit incidence, beneficiary incidence and materiality. The quantity-based subsidy is established under the increasing block rate pricing, with the first two block rates being lower than the marginal cost. To improve the quantity-based subsidy, the research examines the consumer surplus under four proposals.

The results show that both types of subsidies are ineffective in supporting the poor.

In order to achieve a more equal distribution among households, the subsidy program should remove all subsidized blocks and reflect the full marginal cost. Changes should be made to the price structure regarding both marginal price and intervals.

To mitigate the impact of the quantity-based subsidy, the government should improve the cash transfer by reducing extortion and improving targeting efficiency, especially for poor households living in rented houses.

This paper is the first to discuss the welfare effect of the electricity subsidy in Vietnam. First, it comprehensively evaluates the cash transfer subsidy in Vietnam. Second, it suggests a modification in the residential electricity tariff.

This paper aims to explore the spatio-temporal patterns of Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) since the inception of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013 as an extended version of geographically weighted regression.

The panel data are used to examine spatial and temporal dynamics of the magnitude and the direction of China's outward FDI stock and its flow from 2011 to 2015 at a country level. Using the geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR), spatio-temporal distribution of FDI is explained through Logistic Performance Index, the size of gross domestic product (GDP), Shipping Linear Connectivity Index and Container Port Throughput.

A comparative analysis between participating and non-participating countries in the BRI shows that the size of GDP and Container Port Throughput of the participating countries have a positive effect on the increases of China's outward FDI Stock to Asia especially after 2013, while non-participating countries, such as North America, Western Europe and Western Africa, have no significant effect on it before and after the implementation of the BRI.

The findings, however, will not necessarily provide insight into the needs of China's outward FDI in certain countries to develop their economy. The findings provide the evidence to inform policy making to help identify the winners and losers of the investment, scale and direction of investment and the key drivers that shape the distributive investment patterns globally.

The study provides the empirical evidence to inform investment policy and strategic realignment by quantifying scale, direction and drivers that shape the spatio-temporal shifts of China's FDI.

The analysis also guides the Chinese government improve bilateral trade, build infrastructure and business partnerships with preferential countries participating in the BRI.

There is an urgent need to adopt a new perspective to unfold the spatial temporal complexity of FDI that incorporates space and time dependencies, and the drivers of the situated context to model their effects on FDI. The model is based on GTWR and an extended geographically weighted regression (GWR) allowing the simultaneous analysis of spatial and temporal decencies of exploratory variables.

This study was conducted to review the overview of green growth and examine the role of financial inclusion as well as economic integration and other variables on green growth in Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries.

Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to construct financial inclusion variables and panel data regression analysis to examine the effect of financial inclusion and economic integration on green growth in 10 ASEAN countries from 2010 to 2021.

The results showed that financial inclusion had played a role in supporting green growth in ASEAN. The rapid development of green finance and green bonds promoted the implementation of better green growth. The variables of export diversification and trade openness had a significant effect on green growth. Therefore, there is a need for appropriate policies to prevent negative effects on the environment and the behavior of ASEAN countries.

The findings of this study suggest that policymakers in ASEAN countries not only focus on gaining economic benefits from financial inclusion and economic integration activities but also pay attention to environmental impacts. Moreover, the ASEAN region is actively developing strategic steps in providing easy access to capital and finance as well as expanding international trade activities through ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA). Therefore, it is hoped that apart from being able to establish sustainable policies, this region will also encourage and optimize previous policies to make them more environmentally friendly.

This study used a green growth approach with the Index by the Global Green Growth Institute. This index considered aspects of green economic opportunities and social inclusion that have not been applied in previous studies. In addition, this study contributed to review the activities of economic integration and financial inclusion and the sustainability of green growth in ASEAN countries. Until now, there has been no research focused on ASEAN; even though ASEAN has long carried out economic integration and encouraged financial inclusion policies, this region is vulnerable to environmental degradation issues.

Extant research indicates that fear of missing out (FoMO) caused by the negative influence of media and word-of-mouth (WOM) leads to panic buying and generates a negative impact on consumer well-being. However, the mechanism that can minimise or abort this impact remains understudied. Therefore, in this study, we examine how consumer self-regulation functions as a brake mechanism to intervene with the negative influences of media and WOM on FoMO.

Data were collected from a representative sample in Australia. Hypotheses were tested by applying generalised structural equation modelling (GSEM), and analysis was conducted using the statistical software Stata 17.

Self-regulation is negatively influenced by media channels and WOM but is positively influenced by media content. Consumer self-regulation acts as a brake mechanism for FoMO. Panic buying, which is triggered by FoMO, has a significant impact on negative emotional well-being.

The limitations of the study are associated with the survey data collection.

We extend the knowledge of how self-regulation works as a brake mechanism for the complex FoMO construct consisting of a perception of missing out accompanied by irrational behaviours. Self-regulation emerges as a brake mechanism for FoMO. Hence, if self-regulation is practiced at the inception of the media and WOM exposure, it can counteract FoMO and potentially abort its’ impact on panic buying.

From a practical perspective, policymakers could help emotionally vulnerable individuals better engage in self-control practices through support programmes and workshops aimed at assisting the public in coping with overwhelming and intense adverse emotions experienced during and following various crises. Vulnerable cohorts, particularly the younger generation who are arguably more susceptible to FoMO, need to be studied more thoroughly in the marketing domain.

The role of self-regulation has been studied thinly in marketing literature, particularly in relation to offsetting irrational consumer behaviours. The originality of our study is that it extends and broadens the understanding of the role of self-regulation in the context of pandemics and addresses the inconclusive evidence of the impact of self-regulation on FoMO.

This research complements the extant literature on poverty and inequality by assessing the role of “virtual social networks” and “internet access in schools” in mitigating the incidence of inequality on poverty.

Using secondary data, the focus of the study is on developing countries and the empirical evidence is based on Tobit regressions.

The study shows that inequality unconditionally increases poverty while “virtual social networks” and “internet access in schools” negatively moderate the effect of inequality on poverty. An extended analysis provides thresholds of “virtual social networks” and “internet access in schools” at which, the unconditional positive effect of inequality on poverty is completely dampened and above which, negative incidences on poverty are apparent. These attendant information technology thresholds are below average levels in the sampled countries.

The study complements that extant literature by assessing the role of virtual social networks and internet access in schools in mitigating the incidence of inequality on poverty in developing countries. Policy implications are discussed in the light of Sustainable Development Goals.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-09-2023-0695

Digitalization is one of the major factors that fosters economic growth across the world. However, the level of digitalization varies significantly between developed and developing countries, with the latter often lagging behind. To bridge this gap, it is crucial to pinpoint the drivers of digitalization, specifically from the macroeconomic and country-level governance dimensions. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the determinants of digitalization, particularly for countries in Asia and the Pacific region.

Our study utilizes unbalanced panel data from 46 Asian and Pacific countries for the period of 2001–2021. Initially, we analyzed the data using conventional econometric methods, such as pooled ordinary least squares (POLS), random-effects model (REM) and fixed-effects model (FEM). Moreover, we employed endogeneity-corrected techniques and alternative proxies to enhance the robustness and reliability of our findings.

Our findings reveal that economic development progress, government expenditure relative to country size and political stability are key drivers of digitalization. In contrast, corruption at the country level emerges as a significant impediment. Notably, our results remain robust to endogeneity-corrected techniques and alternative proxies of digitalization. Overall, these insights can inform policymakers, helping them to understand the macroeconomic and governance factors shaping digitalization and guide their decision-making toward effective policy interventions.

This study’s empirical findings add significant value to the existing literature by quantifying the impact of macroeconomic and governance factors on digitalization in selected countries. This offers valuable insights for policymakers, particularly in nations with lower levels of digitalization.