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The development and commerce of functional foods (FF) is complex, expensive and risky. Besides technological obstacles and legislative aspects, consumer demands also need to be considered. The purpose of this study is to assess the Lebanese consumer’s knowledge, attitudes and acceptance of FF and functional ingredients.

A cross-sectional study recruited a convenience sample of adults living in Mount Lebanon in 2015. An interviewer-based questionnaire assessed socio-demographic factors, medical status, consumption and knowledge of FF and FI ingredients. The data were analyzed using statistical package for social sciences.

Out of 251 respondents, 40.6 and 32.0 per cent were knowledgeable about FF and FI, respectively, and 67.3 per cent consumed them. Calcium (48.0 per cent) and omega-3 (38.6 per cent) were identified as the most important FI. The consumption of FF was mainly owing to their nutritional benefits beyond basic nutrition (44.2 per cent); however, fearing artificial additives and their side effects (33.4 per cent) were reasons for rejecting them. FF knowledge was higher among young (p = 0.005) and single individuals (p = 0.002) and those going to the gym (p = 0.001), whereas willingness to learn about them was only associated with higher education (p < 0.001). Prebiotic yogurt consumption was higher among gym visitors (p = 0.017) and knowers of FF (p < 0.001). The consumption of protein bars and shakes was higher among males and those going to the gym (p < 0.001). The consumption of cereal bars was higher among young individuals, single, with high income, going to the gym and knowledgeable about FF (p < 0.05).

The findings are useful for market orientation, development and successfully negotiating new market opportunities of FF for both food industries and policymakers.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the level of understanding of Muslim students about Istihalah. It compares the understanding of students of various departments about Istihalah and changes in their knowledge after a workshop.

The study is conducted in two phases. In the first phase, a comparison is made between students of three departments: Islamic studies, business studies and food sciences. These departments were selected using purposive sampling. In the second phase, students with a lack of awareness about Istihalah were given a one-day training workshop on the concept of Istihalah. Data were collected through a personally administrated questionnaire.

The results of the first phase revealed that students from business studies and food sciences were not familiar with the concept and application of Istihalah, whereas students from Islamic studies were well-aware of it. The findings of the second phase revealed that after the provision of training (workshop), students were at par with the students of Islamic studies. All the students were further willing to know about Istihalah and its implications in their personal and professional lives.

The main contribution of this study is to highlight the area where information about Islamic concepts should be disseminated and applied.

As a kind of knowledge-intensive team coordinated across physical distance, it is necessary to construct a meta-knowledge driven transactive memory system (TMS) for the knowledge management of distributed agile team (DAT). This study aims to explore the comprehensive antecedents of TMS establishment in DATs and considers how TMS establishment is affected by herding behavior under the artificial intelligence (AI)-related knowledge work environment that emerges with technology penetration.

The data derived from 177 students of 52 DATs in a well-known Chinese business school, which were divided into 26 traditional knowledge work groups and 26 AI-related task groups to conduct a random comparative experiment. The ordinary least squares method was used to analyze the conceptual model and ANOVA was used to examine the differences in herding behavior between the control groups (traditional knowledge work DATs) and treatment groups (DATs engaged in AI-related knowledge work).

The results showed that knowledge diversity, professional knowledge, self-efficacy and social system use had significantly positive effects on the establishment of TMS. Interestingly, the authors also find that herding behavior may promote the process of establishing TMS of the new team, and this effect will be more significant when AI tasks are involved in team knowledge work.

By exploring the comprehensive antecedents of the establishment of TMS, this study provided a theoretical basis for knowledge management of DATs, especially in AI knowledge work teams. From a practical perspective, when the DAT is involved in AI-related knowledge works, managers should appropriately guide the convergence of employees’ behaviors and use the herding effects to accelerate the establishment of TMS, which will improve team knowledge sharing and innovation.

Intrinsic values to the field of special education include advocacy, inclusivity, individuality, and empiricism. From early days of providing custodial care in segregated settings, special education has evolved into a program that seeks to educate students with a wide range of learning needs in inclusive settings and identify a robust research base that informs its policies and practices. Important concepts such as inclusion and continuum of services have not only been valuable in conceptualizing and in providing intervention for students with disabilities but have also been valuable in advancing the field. Research in special education and students with disabilities has been instrumental in moving the field forward. In the future, special education will continue to be valuable in supporting students whose learning and survival needs deviate from the norm in meaningful ways by delivering responsive evidence-based instruction.

Brand love is a notion where feelings are developed towards a specific brand. This notion is more than just a preference, it is an emotional attachment with the consumed product and the brand that represents it. In tourism, destination marketing will increase the relationship between tourists and places using certain kind of messages and images whose goal is to stimulate their senses and feelings. In crisis management situations, it acts as a mediator, by assessing tourists' risk and safety perceptions, and helps mitigate lasting negative effects.

However, can destination brand love be promoted during these pandemic times? To get an in-deep understanding of the connections that exist between love and safety in tourism, this study explores two concepts through an extended literature review and a qualitative methodological approach using content analysis procedures that will focus on international marketing strategies during the ongoing pandemic crisis.

The qualitative approach was conducted through a survey composed of a set of open-ended questions (N = 31) where respondents were asked to identify their feelings after viewing the promotional tourism campaigns released after the significant increase in cases of COVID-19 worldwide.

The main results demonstrate the existence of brand love antecedents – brand trust and a sense of community, and an overall positive reaction to the images and messages promoted. Also, the existence of brand love antecedents demonstrates the brands' capacity to adapt to crisis events and its ability to outline the kind of paths that have to be defined for tourists to remain passionate about destinations.

The purpose of this paper is to address the core concept of docility in Simon’s learning theories and elaborate docility as a missing link in organizational performance structures. In his book, Administrative Behavior, first published in 1947 with three subsequent editions, Herbert A. Simon introduced a new concept to the emerging field of organizational theory, docility.

In Administrative Behavior, Herbert A. Simon introduced to management and organization theorists the concept of docility. Simon adopted the concept and meaning from E.C. Tolman’s (1932) classic work, Purposive Behavior in Animals and Men, and his novel views on learning processes and key concepts like purpose (goals), thought processes (cognitive psychology) and cognitive maps. This paper elaborates on docility mechanisms and the implications for social learning in organizations.

This paper addresses this lacuna in the organizational literature, and the implications for current theories of organizations and organizational learning.

Docility is a tool to link individual learning with organizational learning in complex environments and changing technologies.

The paper traces origins of Simon’s docility and learning theories.

The study aims to determine the impact of non-Muslim tourists’ perception of halal tourism products and services (PHTPS) on trip quality, trip value, satisfaction and word of mouth (WOM) towards halal tourism destination.

A total of 375 non-Muslim tourists were surveyed in Malaysia using partial least square technique.

The findings showed that PHTPS has a significant impact on all four dimensions. The strongest relationship was found between PHTPS and trip quality, followed by PHTPS–WOM, PHTPS–satisfaction and PHTPS–trip value.

This study provides new insights into the theory and practice of non-Muslim tourists’ PHTPS and WOM towards halal tourism destination. The findings are valuable to tourism operators, managers and marketers with the understanding and responsibility to develop halal tourism products and services from non-Muslim tourists’ insights.

Cultural heritage carries two sets of tangible and intangible assets. The relationship between tourism and intangible cultural heritage is a young but growing discourse. However, tourism planning and strategy development for intangible cultural heritage have so far remained undervalued. This gap looks much bigger within the Persian context. The aim of this chapter is to explore how the roles of Persian intangible cultural heritage in tourism are perceived, and whether the intended roles can be promoted as practicable tourism strategies. Data analysis suggests intangible cultural heritage as a tool that contributes positively to developing tourism strategies through promoting destination attraction and marketing opportunities and sustainability in tourism.

The purpose of this paper is to identify practices aimed at “passing the test” in fieldwork contexts characterized by reciprocal forms of symbolic violence.

It is based on an analysis of a fieldwork experience in an intentional community of activists inspired by anarchist ideas.

This study suggests that in a context of reciprocal violence, the researcher must qualify the specific threat that her presence poses and develop a set of behavioral practices aimed at neutralizing this threat in order to gain acceptance and gather valuable data. Three sets of practices – showing tenacity, disclosing oneself and adjusting while staying consistent – helped the researcher in crafting an acceptable status in the field.

Identifiable moments of hostile challenges should be addressed rather than avoided. They constitute indeed key gateways for understanding the culture and socializing processes of the observed group, and lead to relevant ethical questions regarding the ethnographer’s position.

This study aims to identify the perceived image of the Greater Bay Area (GBA) cities by university students in Hong Kong through both quantitative and qualitative analysis of the levels of familiarity and favourability, the characteristics of the GBA cities and the personal factors that affect the locational decisions (tourism, education, employment and migration) of the sampled students. This study also classifies both the students and the cities according to their perceived image.

This study, on a sample of university students in Hong Kong, investigated the linkage between their perceived familiarity and favourability of the 11 GBA cities using a questionnaire-based survey (n1 = 617). A follow-up, semi-structured interview (n2 = 32) was then conducted to qualitatively understand the underlying factors that determine the perceived city image and inform the students’ locational decisions.

Geographically, the familiarity-favourability (F-F) analysis indicates that Hong Kong university students are overwhelmingly familiar with and favourable to Hong Kong, Macau and Shenzhen. The 11 cities are classified into development-oriented, have specialized local economy, are personality-based and have a rich history and bring back nostalgic memories. From the F-F scores, Hong Kong students are classified into two main clusters of non-interested students and positive but unfamiliar students. The locational decisions of local students show a relatively stronger magnitude of favourability affecting all four purposes of relocation, an overriding preference for Hong Kong and the high determination of psychological characteristics.

As this study focuses on Hong Kong students as a sample, a further comparative study between mainland Chinese students in the GBA region and Hong Kong could be conducted to extend the main findings of this research.

The idea of “People-to-People Bond”, under the framework of the Belt-and-Road Initiative, and its socio-cultural aspect are emphasized as the key to transnational and regional policy success, which is relevant to the GBA region. The regional policies determine the movement of human capital and the interconnection of places for regional planning and development. The research outcomes correspond with the dearth of knowledge about the relationship between the characteristics of upcoming university graduates, their perceptions of GBA cities as destinations for varied purposes and their ultimate decision for relocation. Their interests and intended movements will exert short-to-long-term social and cultural influences to the region.

The promulgation and implementation of the GBA development plan for providing opportunities for tourism, education, employment and migration for mainland and Hong Kong university students. This research enriches the knowledge about the bottom-up and citizen-oriented approach in regional planning and policy formulation by advancing Govers and Go’s (2009) three-gap branding model and relying on an empirical foundation for these policy initiatives.