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With the emergence of social media, online influencers have played a major role in brand marketing. This study aims to examine how Malaysian young adults perceive advertising endorsements of celebrities and online influencers within the framework of parasocial relations and multiculturalism.

This study engaged 42 Malaysian young adults aged 18–24 in semistructured interviews. They were asked to share a television commercial with celebrity endorsement and explain why it was impressive. They were then asked explicitly to compare traditional celebrities and online influencers in terms of attractiveness, credibility and endorsement effects.

Advertising execution strategies and emotional attachment to advertising endorsers are the two main reasons for making an advertisement impressive. Interviewees demonstrate strong emotional attachments to celebrities who are national icons. Online influencers are perceived as more relatable, authentic and credible than traditional celebrities. Interviewees perceive that endorsements by traditional celebrities were more effective for luxurious brands and brands targeting older consumers. On the other hand, endorsements by online influencers were perceived to be more effective for low-involvement product categories and brands that target younger consumers.

This study presents a summary of the parallel perceptions of online influencers and celebrities to explain how young consumers evaluate advertising with celebrity and social media influencer endorsement.

Malaysian young adults perceive endorsers as people who guide their experiences with ads. Adopting an endorser who is young, has a trendy image, and has a similar cultural background enhances the relatability of ads for young adults. National sports heroes can serve as nation-building agents through celebrity endorsement in advertising.

Few studies directly compare the endorsement effects of celebrities and online influencers in a multicultural setting. This study provides marketing and theoretical insights to unravel the influencing mechanism of parasocial relations and multiculturalism.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the common attributes of brick-and-mortar retail shops liked by young adults in the digitalized retail context. The 7Ps of the marketing mix were used as a framework to shed insights for marketing strategies.

A qualitative study using personal interviews was designed. A convenience sample of 24 young adults from 20 to 22 years of age was asked to take photos, showing the exterior and interior of their favorite shop in Hong Kong. They were interviewed face to face to explain why they like these shops. Other information about the shopping context, including frequency of visits and whether shopping alone or with friends, was collected.

The favorite shops of young adults are clothing retailers and stores for snacks. Attributes of favorite shops include stylish product design, variety of choices, cozy physical environment, technology-assisted shopping process and customer-friendly return policy. Young adults seek taste and artistic presentation in consumption. Self-expression and social communication of consumption play a major role in retail brand love.

The sample size of this study was small and may not be generalizable to populations of different socioeconomic status. A quantitative survey can be conducted to further examine the topic.

This study deepens the understanding of how young adults perceive product, store and process attributes of shops that are related to retail brand love. Tangible qualities such as product and physical space played a more important role than intangible attributes such as friendly frontline or sales staff. The results imply that retailers need to pay attention to a shop’s product offering, interior design, as well as develop a seamless integration of online and offline shopping processes to engage customers.

There are very few studies of young consumers and retail brand love using qualitative methods. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of young consumers’ perception of the retail stores that they love in the digitalized retail landscape.

The purpose of this paper is to make objective descriptions on various money‐laundering techniques and to put forward countermeasures in order to combat money laundering more effectively and efficiently.

This paper based on 20 simplified money‐laundering cases, describes various money‐laundering techniques, analyses the reasons why these methods prevail, and points out the future efforts to be made in the fight against money laundering.

As usual, the ways of money laundering include cash smuggling, making use of banks or insurance company, or making use of shell‐company or front‐company. Nowadays, criminals also turn to real estate, lottery, international trade, offshore company to launder money. Sometimes lawyers, accountants are exploited by money launderers. With the wide use of electronic money and internet, criminals prefer to launder money through non‐face to face transactions. The fight against money laundering is the fight between justice and evil. It is of great importance to pierce the secret veil of money laundering so that we can combat money laundering more effectively and efficiently.

This paper prevents a comprehensive description of, and comments on, various money‐laundering techniques and future efforts to be made in the fight against money laundering, which would be beneficial to policy makers, enforcement authorities, and judicial professionals.

This paper aims to investigate the fretting wear mechanism of an Al-Li alloy at room temperature, the tangential fretting wear tests were carried out.

The effects of displacement amplitude and fretting frequency on the tangential fretting wear characteristics were mainly investigated. The experimental data obtained are analyzed and compared.

The results indicated that the fretting friction coefficient increased with the increase of displacement amplitude. As the displacement amplitude increased, the wear scar morphology changed significantly, mainly in terms of delamination debris and furrow scratches. The wear mechanism changed from initial mild wear to more severe oxidative wear, adhesive wear and abrasive wear.

This paper extends the knowledge into mechanical tight connections. The conclusions can provide theoretical guidance for the fretting of mechanical tight connections in the field of automotive lightweight and aerospace.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-11-2019-0490/

This study aims to identify the factors influencing Chinese outbound tourists’ perceptions of safety in Thailand. A media coverage analysis compares the safety perceptions of visitors and non-visitors.

A mixed-methods approach was adopted. Based on a content analysis of 204 news items related to safety incidents in Thailand, this paper divides the factors of safety perception into four dimensions. The quantitative data were gathered by self-administered questionnaires from 370 visitors who have previously visited Thailand and 407 potential visitors yet to visit Thailand.

The results demonstrated significant differences in the safety perceptions of visitors and non-visitors, indicating non-visitors’ fear of uncertainty and intolerance of the exotic. The study also confirmed social-demographic characteristics influence destination safety perceptions. For non-visitors, safety issues tend to have a negative influence on future visit intention, but those with previous travel experience have less concerns.

The findings provide valuable insights to industry practice. More publicity campaigns within the Chinese media may reduce the spillover effects of crisis events and correct the potentially inaccurate images of disease and terrorism risk. Thai government is suggested to develop the Chinese inbound market, improve the quality of tourism infrastructure and standardisation and efficiency of tourism services.

The media plays a significant role in destination image, tourist decision-making and safety measures imposed by governments. This study identified the factors influencing Chinese outbound tourists’ perceptions of safety in Thailand through an analysis of media coverage. The study provides a better understanding of the differences in safety perceptions between visitors and non-visitors to Thailand. The segmentation of visitors and non-visitors also may help destination managers to cater to differing expectations of safety.

本研究旨在探讨中国赴泰游客和潜在赴泰游客对泰国安全认知的影响因素。本研究通过对媒体报道文本的分析，识别出中国出境游客泰国安全感的影响因素，并进一步对游客与潜在游客在安全感知上的差异进行对比。

本研究采用了混合方法。本文通过对204篇泰国安全事件新闻报道的内容进行分析，将安全感知因素分为四个维度。定量研究数据是从370名有泰国旅游经历的游客和407名没有去过泰国的潜在游客中收集的。

研究结果显示游客与潜在游客在安全认知上有显著差异，体现了潜在访客对异国情调的不确定性和不宽容。本研究也证实了社会人口学特征对两个群体的目的地安全感知都有影响。此外，对于潜在游客来说，大多数安全问题都会对他们未来的访问意图产生负面影响，但对于游客来说，结果则相反。

媒体在目的地形象、旅游决策和政府安全措施方面发挥着重要作用。本研究以媒体报导为分析工具，探讨中国出境游客泰国安全感的影响因素。这项研究有助于更好地了解中国赴泰游客和潜在游客在安全认知方面的差异。游客和潜在游客的细分也有助于目的地管理者满足他们对安全的特定期望。

我们的发现为行业实践提供了有价值的见解。在中国媒体上开展更多的宣传活动，可以减少危机事件的外溢效应，纠正有关疾病和恐怖主义风险的潜在地不准确形象。此外，泰国政府应提高旅游基础设施的质量，提高旅游服务的标准化和效率。

Este estudio identifica los factores que influyen en la seguridad percibida de Tailandia por los turistas emisores chinos, con el análisis de la cobertura de los medios, y además compara las diferencias en las percepciones de seguridad entre visitantes y no visitantes.

Se ha adoptado una metodología mixta. Basado en el análisis de contenido de 204 noticias sobre incidentes de seguridad en Tailandia, este trabajo divide los factores de percepción de seguridad en cuatro dimensiones. Los datos cuantitativos se recopilaron mediante cuestionarios autoadministrados de 370 visitantes que tenían experiencia en viajes a Tailandia y 407 visitantes potenciales que no habían estado en Tailandia.

Los resultados demuestran diferencias significativas en la percepción de seguridad de los visitantes y no visitantes, lo que indica el miedo de los no visitantes a la incertidumbre y la intolerancia de lo exótico. Este estudio también confirma que las características sociodemográficas influyen en la percepción de seguridad del destino de cada grupo. Además, para los no visitantes, la mayoría de las cuestiones de seguridad influyen negativamente en su intención de visita futura, pero para los turistas, los resultados son contrarios.

Los resultados brindan información valiosa para la práctica de la industria. Más campañas publicitarias en los medios chinos podrían reducir los efectos secundarios de los eventos de crisis y corregir las imágenes potencialmente inexactas sobre los riesgos de enfermedades y terrorismo. Además, el gobierno tailandés debería mejorar la calidad de su infraestructura turística y aumentar la estandarización y eficiencia de los servicios turísticos.

Los medios de comunicación juegan un papel importante en la imagen del destino, la toma de decisiones turísticas y las medidas de seguridad de los gobiernos. Este estudio identifica los factores que influyen en la seguridad percibida de Tailandia por parte de los turistas chinos, con el análisis de la cobertura de los medios. El estudio proporciona una mejor comprensión de las diferencias en las percepciones de seguridad entre visitantes y no visitantes de Tailandia. La segmentación de visitantes y no visitantes también ayuda a los gestores de los destinos a satisfacer expectativas específicas de seguridad.

Due to the fact that most employees have been forced to work remotely during the lockdown resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, there is great concern about how to alleviate increased stress among employees through human resource (HR) practices. Drawing upon the job demands-control (JDC) model and the job demands-resources (JDR) model, this study empirically investigated the direct effect of HR practices on employee stress in enforced remote work and the mediating role of sources of stress (SoS) and sense of control (SoC).

Data were collected through an online survey platform called Wenjuanxing from March 15 to 22, 2020 in Hubei, China and from April 22 to 29, 2022 in Shanghai, China. Respondents scanned the QR code on WeChat to enter the platform. A total of 511 valid questionnaires were received with a response rate of 75.4%. After controlling demographic variables, the authors used the mediation modeling and PROCESS tool to test the proposed hypotheses.

HR practices negatively affect stress in enforced remote work among employees. Both SoS and SoC partially mediate the relationship between HR practices and stress. HR practices can alleviate stress via decreasing SoS and enhancing SoC, respectively. Moreover, employee care and training are found to be two key factors of HR practices to help employees alleviate stress in enforced remote work.

Lockdown as an extreme external condition has brought great challenges in employee work arrangement as well as HR practices. Although the relationship between HR practices and job stress was studied previously, there is a lack of research on the effects of HR practices on stress in enforced remote work due to lockdown. It advances knowledge on HR practices' stress-reducing effect in the context of remote work and provides suggestions for HR practitioners on ways of alleviating employee stress in remote work.

Based on an ensemble sample of multinational enterprises (MNEs), this study aims to explore the effect of the interactions between Chinese parent firms’ knowledge (including both technological and marketing knowledge), equity control and cultural distance on the business performance of their overseas branches under different subsidiary roles.

The study uses a data set compiled from 138 listed Chinese manufacturing enterprises and their 231 overseas subsidiaries to test the hypotheses regarding the interactive effects of transferred knowledge types and the subsidiary’s control mode.

The empirical results suggest that the moderating effects of equity control and cultural distance vary with the types of the parent firm’s knowledge and subsidiary roles. Specifically, equity control positively regulates the relationship between technological knowledge and subsidiary performance while negatively moderating the relationship between marketing knowledge and subsidiary performance. Cultural distance appears to negatively regulate the relationship between marketing knowledge and subsidiary performance. This binary relationship is shown to be more significant for the implementer subsidiaries.

Drawing on the literature on inter-firm governance and knowledge-induced innovation mechanisms, the authors develop a theoretical contingency framework to derive some managerial implications for inter-firm and infra-firm knowledge transfer in light of MNEs’ performance integrity.

This study delves into the intricate dynamics between technological readiness, knowledge sources and their collective impact on firms' ability to achieve ambidextrous green innovation (GI). It specifically aims to dissect the moderating influence of resource orchestration capability (ROC) in this nexus, proposing a nuanced exploration into how technological preparedness and the strategic utilisation of both internal and external knowledge sources can significantly steer firms towards successful exploitative and exploratory GI endeavours.

The study draws upon resource orchestration theory, integrating a cross-sectional approach that incorporates primary data from Pakistani manufacturing firms. The data consisting of 452 responses was analysed employing Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM).

The research verifies that technological readiness has a substantial influence on exploitative and exploratory GI. Moreover, it reveals that both internal and external knowledge resources mediate the link between technological readiness and ambidextrous GI. Notably, while ROC enhances the favourable impact of external knowledge resources on both types of GI, it does not significantly moderate the effect of internal knowledge sources.

Managers must prioritize enhancing technological preparedness and strategically coordinating knowledge resources to drive both exploitative and exploratory environmentally friendly innovation. Investments in technology and collaborations with external partners, guided by strong resource management capabilities, are crucial for achieving sustainable innovation.

This research contributes to ambidextrous GI literature by examining the roles of technological readiness, mediated by internal and external knowledge sources and moderated by ROC. It offers detailed insights into the mechanisms that promote sustainable innovation, enriching the current understanding of the subject.

The objective was to investigate the utility of cottonseed oil (CSO) as a raw material for the synthesis of CSO water-based alkyd resin. The synthesis involved the polymerization of CSO, trimethylolpropane, phthalic anhydride (PA) and trimellitic anhydride (TMA). The prepared resin coating material was subsequently applied to the surface of steel structure material.

This study aimed to synthesize water-based alkyd resins using CSO. Therefore, the alkyd resin was introduced with TMA containing carboxyl groups and neutralized with triethylamine (TEA) to form a water-soluble salt. Then, the esterification kinetics of CSO water-based alkyd resin were investigated, and finally, the basic properties of CSO water-based alkyd resin coating were evaluated.

It was demonstrated that CSO water-based alkyd resin exhibited excellent water solubility and that the esterification kinetic of the synthesis reaction could be described by a second-order reaction. The coating properties of the material were investigated and found to have good basic properties, with 40% resin addition having the best corrosion resistance. Consequently, it could be effectively applied to the surface of steel structural materials.

This study not only met the requirement of environmentally friendly development but also expanded the application of CSO through the synthesis of CSO water-based alkyd resin via alcoholysis. Compared to fatty acid process, the alcoholysis reduced the need for fatty acid pre-extraction, simplifying the alkyd resin synthesis process. Thus, economic costs are effectively reduced.

This paper investigates the ways digital media applications in rural areas have transformed the influence of social networks (SN) on farmers' adoption of various climate change mitigation measures (CCMM), and explores the key mechanisms behind this transformation.

The study analyzes data from 1,002 farmers’ surveys. First, a logit model is used to measure the impact of SN on the adoption of different types of CCMM. Then, the interaction term between digital media usage (DMU) and SN is introduced to analyze the moderating effect of digital media on the impact of SN. Finally, a conditional process model is used to explore the mediating mechanism of agricultural socialization services (ASS) and the validity of information acquisition (VIA).

The results reveal that: (1) SN significantly promotes the adoption of CCMM and the marginal effect of this impact varies with different kinds of technologies. (2) DMU reinforces the effectiveness of SN in promoting farmers' adoption of CCMM. (3) The key mechanisms of the process in (2) are the ASS and the VIA.

This study shows that in the context of DMU, SN’s promotion effect on farmers' adoption of CCMM is strengthened.