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This paper aims to contribute to research studies on boards of directors in the Chinese transition economy that are by far, few and limited.

This paper uses basic data compilation method to investigate the board characteristics of large and medium Chinese companies listed on the Shenzhen and Shanghai Stock Exchange between 2004 and 2006. Sample data on these companies were obtained from the China Center for Economic Research (CCER) database that contains information on at least 1,350 listed companies in a particular year. Companies with missing data or incomplete information on board attributes are not included in the sample in this paper. Studies of relationships between board characteristics and firm performance in the Chinese context are compared to those studies in the West for determining whether there is a conclusive empirical outcome.

This investigation found some significant differences in board characteristics between the Chinese and Western contexts, such as non‐compliance with legal requirement, equity‐based compensation structure for board members, and lag in the establishment of Chinese board committees as compared to their counterparts in developed Western countries. In addition, the literature review reveals that studies of relationships between board characteristics and firm performance from the small community of scholars investigating the Chinese context produce inconclusive results similar to those studies of the West.

The empirical findings and literature review suggest that the prototype of an effective board may vary from one industry to another, or even from one company to another, and perhaps across time for the same company.

This contingency approach to board impact on firm performance may be relevant to companies operating in the Chinese transition economy, where factors are evolving continuously at the micro, macro, and international levels.

Despite the significant efforts by the Thai Government to promote the use of mobile payment (m-payment) services, this new mode of financial payment has had limited consumer interest. Indeed, whilst it is seemingly desirable to facilitate the uptake of m-payment services given government promotion, limited research has been undertaken to examine the factors that might promote adoption. The purpose of this paper is to address this research gap.

The study developed a conceptual model based on elements of innovation diffusion theory and technology acceptance. The model was empirically validated using structural equation modelling analysis using the responses gained from 529 Thai mobile phone users. The intercept interview/survey across eight different locations was the instrument used for data collection.

The empirical results indicate that consumer adoption of m-payment services in Thailand was determined by four factors – compatibility, subjective norm, perceived trust, and perceived risk. Surprisingly, the construct of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived cost were found not to have a direct effect on behavioural intention.

The results regarding electronic payments highlight the importance of four factors that are fundamental in understanding consumer behaviour in regards to financial m-payments. The conceptual model developed in the study is well suited as a primary research framework to explore other aspect of technological innovation in a Thai context. Even though the model is not generalisable, it has the potential to be refined for use in other countries. The findings from the research contribute to the small, but growing number of studies focusing on technological business innovation in Thailand.

The results of this study will be of value to various groups associated with m-payment services such as mobile network operators, financial institutions, and payment service providers. The findings will potentially inform appropriate service strategies and business models in order to improve the uptake of this type of financial payment by Thai consumers. The factors identified are significant in informing how the capacity of the Thai Government’s investment in electronic infrastructure could be more fully utilised.

This study adds to the literature by bridging the gap in explaining consumer intentions to adopt new technological services amongst people who know about the service but have not adopted it as yet. Moreover, this paper is a pioneer study about the adoption of m-payment services in Thai setting.

Since the development of the COVID-19 vaccinations, questions surrounding race have been prominent in the literature on vaccine uptake. Early in the vaccine rollout, public health officials were concerned with the relatively lower rates of uptake among certain racial/ethnic minority groups. We suggest that this may also be patterned by racial/ethnic residential segregation, which previous work has demonstrated to be an important factor for both health and access to health care.

In this study, we examine county-level vaccination rates, racial/ethnic composition, and residential segregation across the U.S. We compile data from several sources, including the American Community Survey (ACS) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) measured at the county level.

We find that just looking at the associations between racial/ethnic composition and vaccination rates, both percent Black and percent White are significant and negative, meaning that higher percentages of these groups in a county are associated with lower vaccination rates, whereas the opposite is the case for percent Latino. When we factor in segregation, as measured by the index of dissimilarity, the patterns change somewhat. Dissimilarity itself was not significant in the models across all groups, but when interacted with race/ethnic composition, it moderates the association. For both percent Black and percent White, the interaction with the Black-White dissimilarity index is significant and negative, meaning that it deepens the negative association between composition and the vaccination rate.

The analysis is only limited to county-level measures of racial/ethnic composition and vaccination rates, so we are unable to see at the individual-level who is getting vaccinated.

We find that segregation moderates the association between racial/ethnic composition and vaccination rates, suggesting that local race relations in a county helps contextualize the compositional effects of race/ethnicity.

Service robots can offer benefits to consumers (e.g. convenience, flexibility, availability, efficiency) and service providers (e.g. cost savings), but a lack of trust hinders consumer adoption. To enhance trust, firms add human-like features to robots; yet, anthropomorphism theory is ambiguous about their appropriate implementation. This study therefore aims to investigate what is more effective for fostering trust: appearance features that are more human-like or social functioning features that are more human-like.

In an experimental field study, a humanoid service robot displayed gaze cues in the form of changing eye colour in one condition and static eye colour in the other. Thus, the robot was more human-like in its social functioning in one condition (displaying gaze cues, but not in the way that humans do) and more human-like in its appearance in the other (static eye colour, but no gaze cues). Self-reported data from 114 participants revealing their perceptions of trust, anthropomorphism, interaction comfort, enjoyment and intention to use were analysed using partial least squares path modelling.

Interaction comfort moderates the effect of gaze cues on anthropomorphism, insofar as gaze cues increase anthropomorphism when comfort is low and decrease it when comfort is high. Anthropomorphism drives trust, intention to use and enjoyment.

To extend human–robot interaction literature, the findings provide novel theoretical understanding of anthropomorphism directed towards humanoid robots.

By investigating which features influence trust, this study gives managers insights into reasons for selecting or optimizing humanoid robots for service interactions.

This study examines the difference between appearance and social functioning features as drivers of anthropomorphism and trust, which can benefit research on self-service technology adoption.

The aim of this research is to explore the relationship between destination supply-side factors, visitor demand-side factors and the role of local government authorities in supporting the drive tourism market with effective interventions. A mixed methods approach was used to gather qualitative data from 14 destination stakeholders, which informed the development of a survey of 397 drive tourists to the Atherton Tablelands, in the far north of Australia. The findings identified stakeholder concerns about fragmented regional promotions by different regional entities, weakened destination branding and infrastructure needs. Drive tourist surveys indicated that although the destination provides a competitive tourism experience, there were concerns about the availability of information. This research highlights the danger of destination disunity, and the theoretical and practical contributions of the learning destination concept to understanding the importance of destination-wide, stakeholder collaboration, although it may be difficult to implement.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the current literature uncovering specific factors associated with self-harm and suicidality among young Asian-American women, as well as to present the Fractured Identity Model as a framework for understanding these factors. This paper offers concrete suggestions for the development of culturally competent interventions to target suicidality, substance abuse, and mental illness among young Asian-American women.

Empirical studies and theory-based papers featured in peer-reviewed journals between 1990 and 2014 were identified through scholarly databases, such as PubMed, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, JSTOR, and Google Scholar. Of an original 32 articles, 12 were chosen for in-depth empirical review due to relevance to the topics at hand, quality of research, and significance of findings.

The paper identified several factors associated with suicidality among young Asian-American women: family dynamics, or having lived in a household where parents practice “disempowering parenting styles,” substance use/abuse, and untreated mental illness(es), which are exacerbated by the stigma and shame attached to seeking out mental health services. The Fractured Identity Model by Hahm et al. (2014) is presented as a proposed causal pathway from disempowering parenting to suicidal and self-harm behaviors among this population, with substance abuse playing a significant mediating role.

The review focussed on Asian-American women, substance use among Asian-Americans, and mental health among Asian-Americans. Literature that focused on Asians living in Asia or elsewhere outside of the USA was excluded from this review; the review was limited to research conducted in the USA and written in the English language.

The complex interplay among Asian-American culture, family dynamics, gender roles/expectations, and mental health justifies the development of a suicide and substance abuse intervention that is tailored to the culture- and gender-specific needs of Asian Pacific Islander young women. It is imperative for professionals in the fields of public health, mental health, medicine, and substance abuse to proactively combat the “model minority” myth and to design and implement interventions targeting family dynamics, coping with immigration/acculturative stresses, mental illnesses, suicidal behaviors, and substance abuse among Asian-American populations across the developmental lifespan.

This paper provides specific suggestions for interventions to adequately respond to the mental health needs of young Asian-American women. These include addressing the cultural stigma and shame of seeking help, underlying family origin issues, and excessive alcohol and drug use as unsafe coping, as well as incorporating empowerment-based and mind-body components to foster an intervention targeting suicidality among Asian-American women in early adulthood.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyse the readmission risk prediction tools reported in the literature and their benefits when it comes to healthcare organisations and management.

Readmission risk prediction is a growing topic of interest with the aim of identifying patients in particular those suffering from chronic diseases such as congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes, who are at risk of readmission. Several models have been developed with different levels of predictive ability. A structured and extensive literature search of several databases was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis strategy, and this yielded a total of 48,984 records.

Forty-three articles were selected for full-text and extensive review after following the screening process and according to the eligibility criteria. About 34 unique readmission risk prediction models were identified, in which their predictive ability ranged from poor to good (c statistic 0.5–0.86). Readmission rates ranged between 3.1 and 74.1% depending on the risk category. This review shows that readmission risk prediction is a complex process and is still relatively new as a concept and poorly understood. It confirms that readmission prediction models hold significant accuracy at identifying patients at higher risk for such an event within specific context.

Since most prediction models were developed for specific populations, conditions or hospital settings, the generalisability and transferability of the predictions across wider or other contexts may be difficult to achieve. Therefore, the value of prediction models remains limited to hospital management. Future research is indicated in this regard.

This review is the first to cover readmission risk prediction tools that have been published in the literature since 2011, thereby providing an assessment of the relevance of this crucial KPI to health organisations and managers.

National cultural heritage months often highlight superficial elements such as food, arts, crafts, and music, but behind these celebrations lie generations of pioneers who have shaped the historical and cultural heritage of America. Over the past seven years, in championing cultural awareness, the San Francisco Public Library has collaborated with the Asian American Studies Department at San Francisco State University, The Association of Chinese Teachers, and other community organizations to commemorate Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) Heritage Month every year in May. This annual program illustrates how efforts led by APIAs have contributed to the historical, cultural, and literary landscape of America, affording them the recognition they deserve. Multicollaborative efforts led to the creation of a premiere APIA Biography Project (apiabiography.sfsu.edu) – a digital repository of instructional resources that educators across the nation can adapt to their curriculum. By bridging collaboration, public engagement, and community partnerships, public libraries unify multiple constituencies to educate the public on the diverse communities they serve.