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Recently, decoupling between the US and China has emerged as an important issue in global economics. We propose an analytical framework for trade decoupling analysis, borrowing the idea from the production function in non-competitive input-output tables. Using that methodology, we analyze the mobile phone trade network subject to various measures imposed by the US. A scenario analysis is performed to compare the extent of decoupling after a trade war with worst-cases. In bilateral trade, China’s share of total US imports fell significantly in 2019 compared to 2017. However, China’s indirect exports to the US increased during the same period. A similar pattern is observed in the global trade network visualized via multidimensional scaling (MDS). China’s out-degree centrality decreased slightly, while Vietnam’s role expanded. Actual figures for 2019 show a decreased out-degree centrality for Chinese final good exports, but a much higher one in the scenarios. Also, China’s indirect exports to the US have increased. But China does not appear to play a key role in the network as assumed in the scenario. Throughout the study, intermediate goods were treated homogeneously, and further studies considering the heterogeneity of input-output linkages are needed.

The purpose of this paper is to study the drivers of service provider switching intention other than satisfaction and, additionally, analyse the moderating role of the type of service (utilitarian vs hedonic). Specifically, the authors study the effects of alternative attractiveness, post-purchase regret, anticipated regret and past switching behaviour.

A representative survey with 800 consumers of mobile phone services (utilitarian) and holiday destinations (hedonic) was carried out.

Satisfaction is not a significant antecedent of switching intention in the hedonic service and its effect is marginal in the utilitarian service. In the utilitarian service, the main predictor of switching intention is post-purchase regret, whereas in the hedonic service, the main determinants of switching intention are past switching behaviour and anticipated regret.

The main contribution of this study is the analysis of the determinants of provider switching behaviour that may explain abandonment by satisfied customers, to see if their influence is greater or smaller than that of satisfaction itself, which has been the most analysed variable. Furthermore, there are expected to be differences between utilitarian and hedonic services, an aspect which is also studied in this work.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate health effects and determine the factors associated with health effects from smartphone and tablet use among the elderly in Thailand.

This study was a cross-sectional descriptive study. The participants comprised 490 elderly people. A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection via the Healthy e-Elderly People Assessment mobile application in the Android operating system by Google which consists of five parts of a questionnaire. The variables were analyzed using SPSS such as frequency, percentage, mean and binary logistic regression.

Altogether, the participants were 223 males and 267 females; mean age=64.9±5.4. The average time spent using a mobile device was 2.8±1.9 h/day. Participants recorded that after use of either device, 59.0 percent experienced eye pain, 52.7 percent experienced dim eyes, 30.2 percent experienced tiredness, and 28.0 percent experienced moodiness. Socially, 26.8 percent recorded changes in social interaction. Periods of time using devices, time consumed in device usage (hours/day), the type of application, and the difference in times of use, place of usage and time spent in rest breaks from smartphone or tablet usage were significantly associated with health effects (p<0.05).

The elderly users may be at risk of several health effects from smartphone and tablet use. The potential gap in knowledge conceals some of the risk factors for the current health effects. Practical intervention to reduce health effects from the use of smartphones and tablets should be considered.

This study aims to understand how Brazilian design houses (DHs) use open innovation in joint development projects for integrated circuits.

As a research strategy, qualitative research using multiple case studies was made. As sources of evidence, semi-structured interviews were conducted with three DHs of Programa integrated circuit [circuito integrado(CI)]-Brasil and with four specialists in the field, as well as analysis of documents. The data were analyzed through content analysis.

The results showed the DHs use sources of external knowledge in their innovation process, to assist the development of new products, to access new knowledge and skills, to attract financial resources and to be competitive in the market of high technology.

The study has important implications on the semiconductor industry in Brazil, as the industry is considered strategic for the competitiveness of final goods sector. The importance of encouraging the development of partnerships in the sector, the possibility of using informal agreements to mediate the collaboration between DHs and external agents, and the improvement and long-term continuity of public policies to support the industry are among the implications. In addition to suggestions for new business approaches to assist the strengthening of this segment.

This study investigated the linkage between customers’ acceptance (CA) level and smart service competencies in the food sector across Penang, Malaysia. This research aims to develop a vision of how smart technology may transform the business model in hospitality industry to create value.

In this study, the level of CA of the smart restaurant is proposed as the dependent variable, while the perceived security (PS), perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived enjoyment (PE) are proposed as independent variables (IVs). The quantitative approach and simple random sampling method were adopted in this study. Data were collected from 150 respondents by distributing 225 survey questionnaires to restaurant customers across Penang, Malaysia. The data were analysed by the reliability test, factor analysis and multiple regression analysis using SPSS 23.0 software

The study outcomes indicated that PE and PEOU emerged as the most significant predictors for CA of smart services in restuarants in Penang. The smart services provide customers to experience enjoyable dining services with accurate and user-friendly service delivery.

This study may serve as a guideline for food and beverage (F&B) business owners and restaurant operators with an industrial standard to adopt smart services in restaurants and their progression to develop the intention to use such a novel technology. This research is one of the few attempts that have looked into the influences of hedonic, comfortable and security value on customers’ acceptance level of smart restaurant services.

This study aims to examine decision factors for global sourcing, differentiated into transcontinental and continental sourcing to obtain insight into locational aspects of sourcing decisions and global trends. This study analyzed various country perceptions to reveal their influence on sourcing decisions. The country of origin (COO) theory explains why certain country perceptions and images influence purchasing experts in their selection of suppliers.

This study used a two-study approach. In Study 1, the authors conducted discrete choice card experiments with 71 purchasing experts located in Europe and the USA to examine the importance of essential decision factors for global sourcing. Given the clear evidence that location is a factor in sourcing decisions, in Study 2 the authors investigated purchasers’ perceptions and images of countries, adding country ranking experiments on various perceived characteristics such as quality, price and technology.

Study 1 provides evidence that the purchasers’ personal relationship with the supplier plays a decisive role in the supplier selection process. While product quality and location impact sourcing decisions, the attraction of the buying company and cultural barriers are less significant. Interestingly, however, these factors seem as important as price to respondents. This implies that a strong relationship with suppliers and good quality products are essential aspects of a reliable and robust supply chain in the post-COVID-19 era. Examining the locational aspect in detail, Study 2 linked the choice card experiments with country ranking experiments. In this study, the authors found that purchasing experts consider that transcontinental countries such as Japan and China offer significant advantages in terms of price and technology. China has enhanced its quality, which is recognizable in the country ranking experiments. Therefore, decisions on global sourcing are not just based on such high-impact factors as price and availability; country perceptions are also influential. Additionally, the significance of the locational aspect could be linked to certain country images of transcontinental suppliers, as the COO theory describes.

The new approach divides global sourcing into transcontinental and European sourcing to evaluate special decision factors and link these factors to the locational aspect of sourcing decisions. To deepen the clear evidence for the locational aspect and investigate the possible influence of country perceptions, the authors applied the COO theory. This approach enabled authors to show the strong influence of country perception on purchasing departments, which is represented by the locational effect. Hence, the success of transcontinental countries relies not only on factors such as their availability but also on the purchasers’ positive perceptions of these countries in terms of technology and price.

The purpose of this study is two-fold. First is to explore the role of some customer personality traits in explaining customer satisfaction in mobile services. Second is to explore the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty of mobile services customers, mediated by attitude-to-brand considering the fierce competition and the fast industry growth.

The study used a cross-sectional design and a survey of mobile service customers. For the empirical analysis, the structural equation models were applied (partial least squares).

The results suggest that customers who are agreeable, neurotic and open to new experience are more likely to be satisfied with mobile services than other personality types. In addition, the satisfaction-loyalty link is fully mediated by attitude-to-brand. Hence, satisfaction is not a direct driver of loyalty in the mobile services business and loyalty is achieved when service providers simultaneously focussed on the customers’ satisfaction and their attitudes towards brands.

The study identified the personality trait drivers of customer satisfaction and the path to customer loyalty in the mobile services sector. With this information, mobile service providers should be better able to target and retain customers.

The study offers new insights into customer behaviour by using personality traits to identify requirements for achieving customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and attitude-to-brand.

El propósito de este estudio es doble. Primero, explorar el papel de algunos rasgos de personalidad del cliente para explicar su satisfacción en los servicios móviles. Segundo, explorar la relación entre la satisfacción y la lealtad de los clientes de servicios móviles, mediada por la actitud hacia la marca considerando la feroz competencia y el rápido crecimiento de la industria.

El estudio utilizó un diseño transversal y una encuesta de clientes de servicios móviles. Para el análisis empírico se utilizaron modelos de ecuaciones estructurales (PLS)

Los resultados sugieren que los clientes agradables, neuróticos y abiertos a nuevas experiencias tienen más probabilidades de estar satisfechos con los servicios móviles que otros tipos de clientes. Además, el vínculo satisfacción-lealtad está mediado por la actitud hacia la marca. Por lo tanto, la satisfacción no es un precursor directo de la lealtad en servicios móviles. La lealtad se logra cuando el proveedor de servicios se centra simultáneamente en la satisfacción del cliente y cuida la actitud hacia la marca.

El estudio identificó los rasgos de personalidad de los clientes que llevan a la satisfacción y el camino hacia la lealtad del cliente en el sector de los servicios móviles. Con esta información, los proveedores de servicios de telefonía móvil deberían estar mejor capacitados para dirigirse a los clientes y retenerlos.

El estudio ofrece nuevas perspectivas sobre el comportamiento del cliente al utilizar los rasgos de la personalidad para identificar los requisitos que permiten lograr la satisfacción del cliente, su lealtad y mejorar la actitud hacia la marca.

The study investigated the effect of marketing communications’ dimensions on brand loyalty in the banking sector.

The study adopted the quantitative research approach which relied on the explanatory design due to the nature of the hypotheses tested. The convenience sampling technique was used to pull 377 customers of a branch of a commercial bank in Ghana. Furthermore, the PLS-SEM technique was deployed to assess the measurement model and test the research hypotheses.

Results show that the following dimensions of marketing communications are significant predictors of brand loyalty: direct marketing, public relations and sales promotion. The exception is advertising, which had an inverse relation with brand loyalty.

The results provide significant pointers to banks’ management that they should deploy a variety of marketing communication channels other than intensive advertising to reach and persuade customers.

The study illustrates the latest effort to extensively provide insights into how commercial banks could leverage marketing communication tools to sustain loyalty in an emerging economy that is intensively competitive.

A variety of alternate technology-enhanced teaching approaches are now available to university students to broaden their learning experiences and complement conventional face-to-face teaching. This paper aims to outline a study conducted at an English Medium Instruction (EMI) University in the Arabian Gulf where students were studying media. The study explored an innovative teaching approach that sought to enhance the students’ interaction with mobile phone applications as part of their learning experiences during the course.

The focus of the study was on enhancing the students’ English writing skills such as vocabulary, spelling and grammar and on improving their technical skills such as in video production. The study collected both quantitative and qualitative data.

The results indicated that mobile phone applications were helpful in improving students’ journalistic writing skills where they had a good level of proficiency in English, more so than students with poor English who are more dependent on traditional learning methods. Students also benefitted from mobile phone video production workshops that were intensive and creative. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that courses and labs in media courses have skilled technicians that can train students in creative mobile phone video production while faculty members need to be trained and proactively encouraged to use mobile phones for teaching and learning purposes.

wBased on the results of this study, it is recommended that courses and labs in media courses have skilled technicians that can train students in creative mobile phone video production while faculty members need to be trained and proactively encouraged to use mobile phones for teaching and learning purposes.

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a survey regarding undergraduate students’ mobile phone usage patterns and its implication for teaching and learning in the Caribbean higher education academic environment.

A total of 144 students participated in the survey. The survey method utilized a structured questionnaire design comprising 24 items which was completed by students. A quantitative research methodology was used to analyze the data on student mobile phone usage patterns in an educational setting.

The results indicate that students find mobile phones to be an indispensable tool inside and outside the classroom environment. More interestingly, it revealed that despite unique socio-economic factors, students’ mobile phone adoption, usage and perception patterns in a developing country mirror those of their counterparts in developed states. This has profound implications for education policy in the region.

Little research has been done on students’ mobile phone use in the developing world context. Even less work has been done exploring mobile phone usage patterns of university students in the Caribbean region. Given the similarities with developed states, this paper shares ideas with university management and administration how they can incorporate mobile phone technology into their teaching methods, to enhance the learning experience in the Caribbean and the wider developing world context.