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Taking a global perspective, this paper aims to examine the impact of COVID-19 on Airbnb booking activities through three critical perspectives – the initial Wuhan lockdown, local COVID-19 cases and local lockdowns.

Using Airbnb reviews and cancellations as proxies for Airbnb bookings on a global scale, econometrics was used to examine the impacts of the initial Wuhan lockdown, local COVID-19 cases and local lockdowns on Airbnb bookings.

The authors find that local lockdowns result in a 57.8% fall in global booking activities. Every doubling of newly infected cases is associated with a 4.16% fall in bookings. The sensitivity of bookings to COVID-19 decreases with geographic distance to Wuhan and increases with government stringency of lockdown policies and human mobility within a market.

The empirical evidence from this research can provide governments with insights into more accurate assessment of the financial loss of Airbnb hosts so that proper support can be offered based on the financial needs because of due to sudden lockdown.

This research contributes to new knowledge on peer-to-peer accommodation during a time of crisis and provides much needed global evidence to understand the impacts of COVID-19 on the accommodation industry.

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of mobile learning platforms on users' study efficiency and develop cognitive indicators to evaluate users' study efficiency on mobile learning platforms.

Layout style was the only independent factor that was investigated. A between-group experimental design was employed. Eye movement data were recorded during the experiment, following which participants were asked to complete an after-scenario questionnaire. This study evaluated the usability of the proposed new design using both subjective and objective data. The computer system usability questionnaire V3 (CSUQ) was used to measure subjective data. For the eye-tracking measure, gaze entropy, the proportion of fixation count and duration of each AOI were calculated. Gaze entropy reflects the complexity of information organization. Fixation counts and AOI duration represent the difficulty of information processing and attention distribution, respectively during the task.

The results indicated that interface layout presents significant effects on user's learning efficiency, usability and cognitive load. Sequential layout improved efficiency and satisfaction among participants and reduced information complexity. The results provided useful insights for designers whose goal is to improve user's learning efficiency under mobile learning scheme.

This study investigated the effects of interface layout on usability, user performance and cognitive load using subjective ratings and eye-tracking technology. Gaze entropy was used to measure the complexity of information organized by the interface design. Fixation count and duration proportion were used to identify the difficulty of information processing and distinguish users' distribution of cognitive resources. The results indicated that a vertical layout panel design was more efficient than a horizontal layout panel design. The design implications of the eye tracking indicators and research results were then summarized. This study is expected to encourage designers to optimize their design proposals using eye tracking testing.

Project-based organizations (PBOs) face challenges to enhance employee work engagement because of dynamic and constant role configuration. Accordingly, this study aims to explore how ethical leadership enhances employee work engagement from a sensemaking perspective.

This study used a questionnaire-based quantitative research design to collect data from 194 full-time employees in PBOs. The data were analyzed via partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique to test hypotheses.

The findings show a positive relationship between ethical leadership and work engagement. Additionally, the relationship between ethical leadership and work engagement is mediated by two sensemaking mechanisms, i.e. goal commitment and prosocial.

This study deepens the understanding of how ethical leadership enhances work engagement in PBOs by providing two sensemaking mechanisms. By exploring the sensemaking process through which ethical leaders help employees construct identity, the findings contribute to the current literature on how ethical leadership enhances work engagement in PBOs.

As online learning is the embryonic form of education in the metaverse, it is extremely important to explore the behavioral preferences of users. The aim is to explore the impact of interactive features on continuous use in online learning and to further explore what kind of interaction mode should be constructed for different types of students to obtain the best educational experience.

The study developed an empirical model and used a real-world dataset to test hypotheses. Specifically, the interaction in online learning is analyzed from different dimensions, including the interaction intensity of multiple subjects, the immersion of interactive technology, the timeliness of interactive feedback, and the fun in interaction.

The authors found that the intensity of interaction, immersion, timeliness of feedback and fun in the interaction all had significant positive effects on continuous use. Among them, the most important is the interaction between teachers and students. With the growth of user grades, the role of parents in the interaction is getting smaller and smaller, and the fun in the interaction is gradually becoming unnecessary. For high school students, gamified interactions can even have a negative impact. In addition, from the perspective of gender, males prefer immersive interaction, while females pay more attention to themselves and have negative feedback on fees.

The authors deepened the interaction and summarized the impact of different interactive features on continuous use in online learning platforms. The authors focused on the impact of the immersive experience brought by the application of interactive technology, which can confirm the user behavior preferences of online learning in the context of the metaverse. The research also provides a reference for online learning institutions to set up course interaction modes and targeted marketing programs.

This study aims to conceptualize the potential stimuli and consequences of perceived yuanfen in the accommodation service encounter by interpreting how Chinese customers perceive yuanfen during their stay in accommodations.

Online accommodation reviews containing yuanfen perception were interpreted using a grounded theory approach. Group interviews were conducted to verify the interpretations.

Positive outcome-generated emotional accommodation experiences (e.g. happiness) can elicit perceived yuanfen, which then evokes customers’ feelings of gratitude, emotional attachment to an accommodation and memorable accommodation experiences. Also, perceived yuanfen facilitates customers’ tolerance of service failures and promotes customers’ intention to stay longer at, recommend and revisit the accommodation.

This study contributes to the literature on accommodation experiences, loyalty, word-of-mouth and service recovery. Future research can explore the interventions that trigger Chinese customers’ perceived yuanfen during accommodation.

This study informs practitioners of the importance of perceived yuanfen in enhancing accommodation experiences and service recovery. Moreover, the conceptualized characteristics and stimuli of perceived yuanfen offer possible guidelines for practitioners on how to stimulate customers’ yuanfen perception.

This study fills the gap of how perceived yuanfen functions in the service encounters in accommodations.

The research in competitive facility location (CFL) is quite dynamic, both from a problem formulation and an algorithmic point of view. Research direction has changed immensely over the years to address various competitive challenges. This study aims to explore CFL literature to highlight these research trends, important issues and future research opportunities.

This study utilises the Scopus database to search for related CFL models and adopts a five-step systematic approach for the review process. The five steps involve (1) Article Identification and keyword selection, (2) Selection criteria, (3) Literature review, (4) Literature analysis and (5) Research studies.

The paper presents a comprehensive review of CFL modelling efforts from 1981 to 2021 to provide a depth study of the research evolution in this area. The published articles are classified based on multiple characteristics, including the type of problem, type of competition, game-theoretical approaches, customer behaviour, decision space, type of demand, number of facilities, capacity and budget limitations. The review also highlights the popular problem areas and dedicated research in the respective domain. In addition, a second classification is also provided based on solution methods adopted to solve various CFL models and real-world case studies.

The paper covers 40 years of CFL literature from the perspective of the problem area, CFL characteristics and the solution approach. Additionally, it introduces characteristics such as capacity limit and budget constraint for the first time for classification purposes.