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This paper aims to propose an innovative blockchain-based system enabling implementation of a bond-pays model in credit rating industry. Issuer-pays model has led to conflict of interest resulting in rating shopping and inflation. Alternative business models have their own problems, e.g. investor-pays model suffers from “free rider” and public dissemination challenges, whereas government-controlled business models can lead to market distortion. Bond-pays model has been difficult to implement owing to operational difficulties in managing co-ordination amongst multiple entities involved, often with conflicting goals. Blockchain technology enables inter-organizational systems that foster trust amongst non-trusting entities, facilitating business functions such as credit rating to be carried out.

This paper outlines current processes in credit rating business that has led to repeated rating failures and proposes a new set of processes, leveraging capabilities of blockchain technology to enable implementation of an arms-length bond-pays model.

A proof-of-concept system, namely, rating chain has been designed to implement a small part of the proposed model to establish technical feasibility in a blockchain environment.

A fully functional blockchain-based system on bond-pays business model, if built and adopted, could impact how credit rating market functions currently and could contribute to a reduction in rating-related challenges.

The proposal to adopt blockchain technologies in implementing a bond-pays model in credit rating industry is a novel contribution.

This study aims to explore the evolution of the culture agapic (personal) gift-giving with the advent of new online gifting platforms that provide the opportunity to gift tourism experiences. This study investigates this well-established cultural behavior in view of this new form of social exchange.

Focus group interviews with two key target markets – mothers and couples/singles – were conducted (N = 39). Interview questions focused on understanding gifting using online platforms, sharing the experience and the role of various parties in the exchange.

This study reveals that experiential tourism gifts differ from physical gifts because they offer novelty and symbolic value, heighten positive emotions and have the potential to create lifelong memories for recipients. However, giving an experiential gift can also be a risky option because of the uncertainty of getting the gift–recipient identity match correct, particularly for adventure tourism gifts. The identity of the gift-giver is also considered in gift selection as the experience selected is a reflection of self.

It is recommended that online experiential gifting platforms pay attention to both the identity of the gift-giver and gift-recipient. Sharing the experience through social media posts can reinforce both parties’ social identity, create a positive social exchange and may motivate repeat purchase.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to uncover the motivational factors of online tourism experiential gifting as part of the culture of gift-giving and the parties in this exchange. The findings advance theoretical understanding of this new form of social exchange.

This paper analyses the interrelationships between emotions, the cognitive information cues of online reviews and intention to follow the advice obtained from digital platforms, paying special attention to the moderating effect of the sequencing of review valence.

The data were collected from 830 Spanish Tripadvisor users. In a two-step approach, a measurement model was estimated and a structural model analysed to test the proposed hypotheses. SmartPLS 3.0 software was used. The moderating effect of sequencing of reviews is tested.

The data analysis showed a bias effect of review sequence on the impact of online information cues and emotions on intention to follow advice obtained from Tripadvisor. When the online reviews of a restaurant begin with positive commentaries, their perceived persuasiveness is a stronger driver of the pleasure and arousal elicited by online reviews than when they begin with negative reviews. On the other hand, the perceived helpfulness of online reviews only triggers arousal when the user reads negative, followed by positive, comments. The impact of pleasure on intention to follow the advice provided in an online travel community is higher with positive-negative than with negative-positive sequences.

While researchers have demonstrated the benefits of customer reviews on company sales, a largely uninvestigated issue is the interplay between emotions and cognitive information cues in the processing of online reviews. This is one of the first studies to examine the moderating effect of conflicting reviews on the impact of emotions and cognitive information cues on consumer intention to follow the advice obtained from digital services.

The purpose of this study is to draw on the updated information system success model, perceived value and new product novelty to identify the factors that may influence user satisfaction and loyalty with paid knowledge platforms.

The authors used the survey method to collect 540 valid sample data. The structural equation modelling (SEM) technique was employed to test the proposed research model and hypotheses.

The findings suggested that system, information and service quality significantly affected the perceived utilitarian value, while service quality and new product novelty had significant impact on perceived hedonic value. Besides, both the perceived utilitarian value and the perceived hedonic value had a significant effect on user satisfaction and further significantly impacted user loyalty. The authors also found user differences, including gender, education level and use frequency, which had a significant influence on perceived utilitarian value, perceived hedonic value and user loyalty.

The results can help researchers and practitioners better understanding the factors that influence user satisfaction and loyalty with paid knowledge platforms.

The authors applied the theories of perceived value, new product novelty and user loyalty to the domain of paid knowledge platforms and explored the factors influencing the user satisfaction and loyalty to paid knowledge platforms.

Palm oil has consistently been a staple ingredient in the Malaysian diet. Despite various promotional efforts throughout the years, the health aspects of palm oil have often been undervalued, leading consumers to overlook its benefits. This study has two objectives: (1) to explore consumer behaviour in purchasing decisions for food products containing palm oil in an emerging market and (2) to examine consumer awareness of palm oil as an ingredient in various edible products related to health.

A quantitative methodology that utilises a self-administered questionnaire was adopted for data collection. The conceptual framework and hypotheses were tested using partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modelling (SEM) on a dataset of 342 respondents.

The findings revealed that three hypotheses – attitude, subjective norms (SNs) and perceived health benefits – positively impact the intention to purchase palm-oil-based food products. Additionally, results indicate that Malaysian consumers practice sustainable consumption when purchasing palm-oil-based food products.

There is a need for a greater understanding of the importance perceived health benefits have in influencing consumers' consumption of food products containing palm oil in an emerging market such as Malaysia. This research study addresses the gap in existing knowledge.

This paper explores the similarities and differences in privacy attitudes, trust and risk beliefs between younger and older adults on social networking sites. The objective of the article is to ascertain whether any notable differences exist between younger (18–25 years old) and older (55+ years old) adults in how trust and risk are influenced by privacy concerns upon personal information disclosure on social media.

A Likert scale instrument validated in previous research was employed to gather the responses of 148 younger and 152 older adults. The scale was distributed through Amazon Mechanical Turk. Data were analyzed through partial least squares structural equation modeling.

No significant differences were found between younger and older adults in how social media privacy concerns related to trust and risk beliefs. Two privacy concern dimensions were found to have a significant influence on perceptions of risk for both populations: collection and control. Predictability and a sense of control are proposed as two conceptual approaches that can explain these findings.

This article is the first one to explore age differences in privacy concerns, trust and risk on social media employing conceptual developments and an instrument specifically tailored to the social media environment. Based on the findings, several strategies are suggested to keep privacy concerns on social media at a minimum, reduce risk perceptions and increase users' trust.

The purpose of this study is to discover the uniqueness of China's online livestreaming industry and to make preliminary predictions about its future.

Providing a panoramic description of China's online livestreaming industry and a comparative analysis with other countries' online livestreaming industries.

China's online livestreaming industry is world leader in general. In terms of user size and age structure, although China has a high proportion of online livestreaming users, the proportion of anchors is not high, while the age structure of users in both China and other countries shows the characteristics of younger users. In terms of policy, the difference between China and foreign support in online livestreaming is small, but developed countries have stricter regulations.

The research in this paper has great significance in gaining an in-depth understanding of the development status and trends of China's online livestreaming industry and in designing accurate support policies.

Online reviewers' identity information is an essential cue by which consumers judge reviews on ecommerce platforms. However, few studies have explored how prior anonymous reviews and focal reviews affect reviewers' preference for anonymity. The purpose of this paper is to investigate why reviewers seek anonymity in terms of prior anonymous reviews and focal reviews.

Based on restaurant reviews collected from meituan.com, one of the largest group-buying ecommerce platforms in China, this study employed logistic regression to examine how prior anonymous reviews and focal reviews are associated with reviewers' preference for anonymity.

Results show that the volume and sequence of prior anonymous review are positively associated with the likelihood of reviewers' preference for anonymity, whereas focal review valence is negatively correlated with this preference. Focal review length is positively correlated with reviewers' preference for anonymity but negatively moderates the roles of review valence and prior anonymous reviews on this preference.

This study expands the information disclosure literature by exploring determinants of user identity disclosure from a reviewer perspective. This research also offers a methodological contribution by employing a more accurate measure to calculate reviewers' preference for anonymity, enhancing the empirical results. Lastly, this work supplements the online review literature on how prior anonymous reviews and focal reviews are associated with reviewers' identity disclosure.

Couriers are in an unequal relationship with on-demand logistic platforms with regards to order assignment and delivery-related information acquisition, which leads to high courier turnover rates. Based on social cognitive theory and justice theory, this research investigates the impact of order assignment and delivery-related information disclosure strategy on couriers' perceived justice and continuous participation intention and presents managerial suggestions to on-demand logistic platforms to lower the courier turnover rate.

Taking Chinese couriers as experimental subjects, this study conducts experiments by constructing an order receiving scene of order assignment strategy (performance-priority vs distance-priority) and delivery-related information disclosure strategy (detailed-information vs brief-information) and analyzes the results of 452 valid respondents.

The results indicate that the interaction between order assignment and delivery-related information disclosure strategy in on-demand logistics significantly affects couriers’ continuous participation intention, specifically under performance-priority order assignment and detailed-information (vs brief-information) disclosure strategy. Informational justice and distribution justice play mediating roles, and work experience and proactive personality moderate the relationship interactions.

The research helps us to understand the order-receiving justice demand and delivery-related information demand of couriers in on-demand logistics platforms and sheds light on cutting down turnover rates through different strategies designs and justice environment construction.

This research integrates social cognitive theory into on-demand logistics and combines with justice theory to fill platform strategies, couriers’ justice perception and characteristics, as well as behavior into “triadic reciprocal causation.” Meanwhile, it investigates different impacts and interactive relationships of order assignment and delivery-related information disclosure strategy, expands strategies from the impact of operational efficiency to the impact of couriers’ participation and extends the literature of justice perception and individual characteristics in on-demand logistics.

Drawing on the self-determination theory, the assemblage theory and customer experience literature, this paper aims to develop a framework to understand motivational customer experiences with chatbots.

This paper uses a multimethod approach to examine the interaction between individuals and airlines’ chatbots. Three components of self-determined interaction with the chatbot (competence, autonomy and relatedness) and five components of the customer–chatbot experience (sensory, intellectual, affective, behavioral and social) are analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively.

The findings confirm the direct influence of self-determined interaction on customer experience and the direct effects of these two constructs on participants’ attitudes toward and satisfaction with the chatbot. The model also supports the mediating roles of customer experience and attitude toward the chatbot.

This paper offers managers a broad understanding of individuals’ interactions with chatbots through three elements: motivation to use chatbots, experiential responses and individuals’ valuation of whether the interactions have amplified (or limited) the outcomes obtained from the experience.

This paper contributes to the hospitality and tourism literature with a hybrid approach that reflects on current theoretical developments regarding human- and interaction-centric interpretations of customer experience with chatbots.