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Considering the financial service providers’ (FSPs) information asymmetry in evaluating the supplier and their distinct quit probabilities, we want to examine the supplier’s preference of the financing schemes if both the bank and the online platform exist and how the buyer sets the contract terms in the two financing schemes.

We establish a Stackelberg game model to capture the interactions among three parties, i.e. a supplier, a capital-sufficient buyer and an FSP (either a bank or an online platform), within a first-time contract.

In the non-FSPs’ quit case, the buyer’s profit is higher under the bank loan scenario, while the supplier’s profit performs adversely. The supply chain’s profit is heavily dependent on the buyer’s profit difference between the two financing schemes. Moreover, we find that the supplier borrows the money to exactly cover the production cost. The equilibrium solutions of the FSPs’ quit case and of the capital-sufficient supplier’s case are also derived.

First, we assign different risk profiles to different FSPs in our setting so that modeling a previously ignored but practically significant problem. Second, we innovatively take the FSP’s quit probability into account in our model. Third, we elucidate how these factors can influence the relative efficiency of the two types of financing schemes and the settings of the contract, which further complements and extends the current SCF research.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of government policies adopted by the Tunisian government to cope with the COVID-19 sanitary crisis on stock market return.

The author uses daily data from March 2, 2020, to July 23, 2021.

The author finds that policies interventions have a negative impact on Tunisia's stock market, particularly stock market returns due to stringency, confinement and health measures. Also, Government announcements regarding economic has a negative impact on Tunisia's stock market but this impact is insignificant. By conducting an additional analysis, the author shows that the government interventions policies amplify the negative effect of COVID-19 on stock returns.

These results will be useful for policy authorities seeking to consider the advantages and drawbacks of government measures. Finally, a legislative proposal about the audit of public debt should be included in the Constitution to spur Tunisia's economic and social recovery.

This study contributes to the related literature in two ways: First, it is the first study to examine the impact of government actions on stock market performance. Second, it bridges a gap in the literature by investigating the case of Tunisia, because most studies focus on developed and emerging economies.

This study intends to explore the configuration that affects the active degree of written questions in the Macau Legislative Assembly.

This study takes the members elected by the sixth Legislative Assembly of Macau as samples and uses the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis method. Five conditional factors are discussed, including multiple concurrent factors and complex causal mechanisms, which lead to the difference in the active degree of written questions.

The main conclusions are as follows: (1) Not Serving in the government is a necessary condition for a high active degree of the written question, and (2) The driving mechanism of a high active degree of written question can be divided into two paths. Among them, direct election into the Legislative Assembly is the crucial factor.

Traditional research mainly uses quantitative research methods. This study uses qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), which is a hybrid method designed to bridge the qualitative (case-oriented) and quantitative (variable-oriented) research gap.

The circular economy (CE) represents an industry-wide transition from linear to circular processes. There has been a proliferation of literature on CE in the last decade. However, the existing studies on the adaption of CE in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are scarce. This study aims to develop a research agenda and the way forward for future researchers focusing on the adoption of CE.

This article analyses the CE concepts through a Systematic Literature Review (SLR). Coding and content analysis are performed to generate emergent themes with the help of “Atlas.ti” software.

The authors uncovered the contemporary significance of adopting CE and the state-of-the-art literature on CE. The study's findings fall into four broad themes: Technical know-how, resource and process optimization, reverse practices and technology and innovation. Ten thought-provoking questions were identified in the four themes that researchers can explore further in embracing CE to achieve sustainability in SMEs.

The study has highlighted the importance of CE adoption and CE's benefits to stakeholders across all three dimensions, i.e. social, economic and ecological. Practitioners can use the agenda in four themes to strengthen the practitioners' existing practices in SMEs to promote CE.

The study's uniqueness is the supply of current knowledge from diverse literature and practical consequences for SMEs. This study opens new lines of inquiry to adopt CE in SMEs, streamlining the existing literature into four themes to focus future research.

Recent growth of metaverse adoption has impacted the adoption of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) which is becoming increasingly attractive. Recently, researchers have explored the adoption of NFTs in metaverse platform. However, considering the risk involved in the transaction, the need for trust on NFT transaction arises. Drawing on trust transfer theory, this study aims to fill this gap by investigating the trust transfer process from trust on metaverse platform and online payment. Moreover, the moderating effect of perceived effectiveness of dispute resolution (PEDR) between trust and adoption of NFT transaction in metaverse platform is explored.

This study adopts an empirical approach using a questionnaire survey in India based on simple random sampling technique and is analyzed using structural equation modeling through the Smart PLS software.

The findings reveal that users with a higher trust disposition will trust the metaverse platforms, online payments and NFT transactions in the metaverse. Also, the study reveals that trust transfers from the metaverse platform and online payments toward NFT transactions in the metaverse, which further leads to the adoption intent of NFT. The study provides information for platforms on how the trust transfer process occurs and how to manage conflict resolution to attract the trust of users to use NFTs in their transaction.

The study makes a valuable contribution by identifying the significant impact of trust disposition and social influence in explaining user trust in NFT transactions within the metaverse. Also, the study explores how established trust in conventional online payment mechanisms translates and contributes to trust-building on NFTs and transactional contexts within virtual worlds.

This study implies that ensuring robust security measures for NFT transactions, such as two-factor authentication, blockchain verification and secure wallets, can reassure users with different levels of trust disposition.

Metaverse platforms should focus on educating users about how trust operates within their environment by providing tutorials, FAQs and support channels to help users navigate the process confidently. Highlighting security measures, user rights and privacy protections can enhance trust toward NFT payment.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study contributes to research as it is the first of its kind study to explore the factors affecting adoption intent of NFTs transaction in metaverse platform using trust transfer theory. Thereby, developing substantial theoretical and practical contributions by considering an emerging technology.

This study aims to address the issues of limited pipe diameter adaptability and low inspection efficiency of current pipeline inspection robots, a new type of pipeline inspection robot capable of adapting to various pipe diameters was designed.

The diameter-changing mechanism uses a multilink elastic telescopic structure consisting of telescopic rods, connecting rods and wheel frames, driven by a single motor with a helical drive scheme. A geometric model of the position relationships of the hinge points was established based on the two extreme positions of the diameter-changing mechanism.

A pipeline inspection robot was designed using a simple linkage agency, which significantly reduced the weight of the robot and enhanced its adaptive pipe diameter ability. The analysis determined that the robot could accommodate pipe diameters ranging from 332 mm to 438 mm. A static equilibrium equation was established for the robot in the hovering state, and the minimum pressing force of the wheels against the pipe wall was determined to be 36.68 N. After experimental testing, the robots could successfully pass a height of 15 mm, demonstrating the good obstacle capacity of the robot.

This paper explores and proposes a new type of multilink elastic telescopic variable diameter pipeline inspection robot, which has the characteristics of strong adaptability and flexible operation, which makes it more competitive in the field of pipeline inspection robots and has great potential market value.

The robot is characterized by the innovative design of a multilink elastic telescopic structure and the use of a single motor to drive the wheel for spiral motion. On the basis of reducing the weight of the robot, it has good pipeline adaptability, climbing ability and obstacle-crossing ability.

This study aims to analyse the efficiency effects of institutional distance on Chinese outward foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa.

The study utilised the true fixed-effect stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) model. Data from 2003 to 2016 (14 years) were acquired from 42 targeted African countries, which are included in the analysis.

The results reveal that FDI flow efficiency can be maximised with a high institutional distance between China and African countries. Contrariwise, comparable institutional distance, measured by the rule of law, regulatory quality and government effectiveness between the host and home countries, reflected a significant positive impact for Chinese outward foreign direct investment (OFDIs), indicating Chinese MNEs can invest directly in a country with comparable institutional characteristics.

There have been limited exceptional studies that assessed the effect of institutional distance between emerging countries. However, none of these studies investigated the effect of institutional distance between China and Africa at a national level. Using the advantage of the SFA model, this study assesses the efficiency effects of institutional distance between the host and home country.

This study aims to identify the attitudes of Chinese residents towards tourists and tourism development. Based on periods of observation, temporary residency and several visits for more than a decade, and supplemented by data collected from 478 residents, the study examines to what extent the rural villagers identify the tourism induced changes as being an outcome of official Chinese policies. The villages, Xidi, Hongcun and Nanping, are three heritage villages in Anhui Province and represent appropriate case studies for such an examination due to their differing histories of tourism administrative procedures. Findings contribute to scholarly knowledge by putting pro-poor tourism and community participation under scrutiny in Chinese context. A change of residents’ perceptions towards tourism could potentially be consequential for tourists’ experience and the sustainability of tourism development, particularly in emerging rural destinations.

This paper aims to analyse the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and UTAUT2 constructs used in research on information and communication technology (ICT) adoption and use among micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in non-organisation for economic co-operation and development (OECD) countries. It also investigates the areas of ICT adoption along the value chain in studies using these constructs.

Systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted, where 910 studies were retrieved manually in five academic databases. Forty-eight studies were finalised after four filtration levels.

Majority of the studies were published within the past six years, and 85.42% were studies in the form of journal papers. UTAUT constructs more researched compared to UTAUT2 constructs. More than half of the studies investigated ICT application in value chain boundaries, while 16 studies were organisation-wide studies.

With developments in MSMEs’ technology, the UTAUT2 model must be expanded to internal company operations including finance and infrastructure maintenance. To boost competitiveness and productivity, non-OECD authorities should focus on the cost and user-centric characteristics of MSMEs’ technology adoption.

Although SLRs on UTAUT and UTAUT2 constructs have been attempted previously, this study contributes to the body of knowledge by focusing analysis on the application of those constructs on MSMEs in non-OECD countries and also by situating ICT adoption along the value chain of enterprises.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the technology-focused and technology-supported dilemmas that firms have encountered and their digital orientation from a nuanced perspective to answer the following research questions: What digital orientations do companies take in launching digital initiatives? How does the choice between a proactive digital orientation (Pro-DO) and a reactive digital orientation (Rea-DO) influence firm value?

The authors adopted machine learning and a quantitative research approach using observations from China’s listed companies from 2010 to 2020 and applied statistical techniques and regression analysis to examine the effect of digital orientation alternatives on firm value.

The findings of this study indicate that firms with a Pro-DO exhibit a positive effect on firm value. In contrast, firms with a Rea-DO do not demonstrate the same positive relationship with firm value. Additionally, this study reveals that firms with better corporate governance practices and lower financing constraints are more responsive to the positive effects of Pro-DO on firm value.

We elucidate two primary perspectives of digital orientation: Pro-DO and Rea-DO. Additionally, we empirically showcase their nuanced influences on firm value, thereby enriching knowledge in the fields of strategic orientation and digital transformation. Moreover, our findings underscore the importance of corporate governance and financing constraints as moderators.