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Though many conceptual and empirical studies have been conducted on the servicescape, limited research has focused on how the COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped factors influencing the servicescape. This paper aims to propose an extension of Bitner’s original conceptualization, including pandemic-induced physical and social constraints on servicescape in the form of crowding, consumer risk perception during the crisis and their impact on consumers' and employees’ behavioral changes in retail and hospitality sectors.

This paper critically reviewed the past and emerging servicescape and risk literature. It then examines and delineates the concepts of crowding, density and associated risk perceptions to offer an extended servicescape framework. Alongside, scales were proposed to measure the constructs and guidelines given to conduct future empirical studies.

This paper discussed the major impact on servicescape during a pandemic situation, to what extent risk is perceived during consumption and the impact of crowding and store density on employee and customer behavioral responses.

This paper principally contributes by explicitly including specific risk dimensions and crowding and proposes the scales to measure consumers’ understanding of pandemic-induced perceptions of risk, crowding and density within servicescapes for further empirical testing. Alongside this, the identification and concretization of different types of perceived risks under COVID-19 provide critical and useful marketing implications.

This study identifies relevant risk dimensions, proposes crowding as an independent construct apart from servicescape physicality and proposes relevant measures for empirical verification.

E-procurement has the advantage of improving the overall performance of construction project delivery. The purose of this study is to uncover the factors influencing e-procurement acceptance in the public sector of Ghana’s construction industry (GCI). Using an extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT 2), variables that promote the acceptance of e-procurement in GCI were explored.

Data was collected using a mixed method strategy. In the first stage, a semi-structured interview was used to collect, assess and optimize the UTAUT2 model. Thematic analysis was used on the qualitative data, leading to modification of the proposed UTAUT2 model. The study subsequently used a questionnaire survey using the extended UTAUT2 model. Survey data was analyzed using structural equation modelling (SEM), leading to the identification and validation of factors that facilitate e-procurement acceptance in Ghanaian construction as well as the impact of these factors.

The findings of the study reveal that five independent constructs of the proposed UTAUT2 model significantly affects the behavioural intention of practitioners to accept and use e-procurement in the construction industry in Ghana.

The study will be of utility to government agencies, contracting organizations and other construction stakeholders in developing policy and programmes to support e-procurement acceptance within the sector.

This is a new extended UTAUT2 model that is applicable to technology acceptance within the public sector in sub-Saharan Africa.

By inspecting the special connection between negligence and the causes of negligence, this study evaluates the reasonableness of negligence offenses elements from the perspectives of “modes” and “rules.” This study considers that in the core concept of negligent manslaughter in the Criminal Code of Taiwan, “business” comprises an outstretched legal element; thus, “application by analogy” or “customary laws” should be prohibited as a legal basis or when applying the criminal code because those are not allowed under nulla poena sine lege. Nulla poena sine lege must be respected to release construction professionals from material risks in their judicial rights and interests.

This study used data mining analysis with a database of 204 cases where construction professionals were involved in an accusation of gross negligence manslaughter (GNM) (N = 486) between 1995 and 2021 to explore the reasons and distribution of these cases in the construction industry in Taiwan.

The results showed that the main reasons behind lawful GNM accusations against construction professionals are as follows: (1) the violation of employers' duty of care to prevent hazards caused in workplaces where falling and collapsing are concerns during construction, thus resulting in death; (2) gross negligence during design, construction and supervision, causing damages after natural disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons.

This study discusses the whole life circle of construction, starting from planning, design, construction and completion. However, the involvement of other offenses such as providing false statements, forgery, embezzlement, unjust enrichment and fraudulent tax evasion or criminal responsibilities stipulated in the Building Act or administrative punishments are beyond the scope of this study. Future studies will focus on foreign “business GNM” cases from judicial precedents with similar backgrounds to Taiwan in the construction industry to verify whether similar conclusions can be drawn and to examine their differences.

This study applied data mining and data analysis to the data and explored potential causality and patterns of GNM cases in judicial cases. The results of the analyses can be used as evidence for potential causality and thus facilitate construction professionals' self-reflection and contribute to the sustainable development of working environments for construction.

This study agrees with the removal of GNM titled “business” in the Criminal Code of Taiwan to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the building industry. By doing so, national judicial and management systems will be in line with international standards, ensuring that everyone has equal access to justice.

Goal 16 of the SDGs by the United Nations aims to promote judicial equality, peace, justice and strong institutions. With this basis, this study collected and analyzed data in the field of criminal law and applied the theory of criminal offenses committed by negligence to real construction-related cases. This study especially discusses whether construction professionals were imposed with excessive responsibilities when a court enforced the “duty of care” that asked the professionals to bear the responsibility of results for events that should be and could be foreseen.

3D printing has been warmly welcomed by clothing enterprises for its customization capacity in recent years. However, such clothing enterprises have to face the digital transformation challenges brought by 3D printing. Since the business model is a competitive weapon for modern enterprises, there is a research gap between business model innovation and digital transformation challenges for 3D-printing garment enterprises. The aim of the paper is to innovate a new business model for 3D-printing garment enterprises in digital transformation.

A business model innovation canvas (BMIC), a new method for business model innovation, is used to innovate a new 3D-printing clothing enterprises business model in the context of digital transformation. The business model canvas (BMC) method is adopted to illustrate the new business model. The business model ecosystem is used to design the operating architecture and mechanism of the new business model.

First, 3D-printing clothing enterprises are facing digital transformation, and they urgently need to innovate new business models. Second, mass customization and distributed manufacturing are important ways of solving the business model problems faced by 3D-printing clothing enterprises in the process of digital transformation. Third, BMIC has proven to be an effective tool for business model innovation.

The new mass deep customization-distributed manufacturing (MDC-DM) business model is universal. As such, it can provide an important theoretical reference for other scholars to study similar problems. The digital transformation background is taken into account in the process of business model innovation. Therefore, this is the first hybrid research that has been focused on 3D printing, garment enterprises, digital transformation and business model innovation. On the other hand, business model innovation is a type of exploratory research, which means that the MDC-DM business model’s application effect cannot be immediately observed and requires further verification in the future.

The new business model MDC-DM is not only applicable to 3D-printing garment enterprises but also to some other enterprises that are either using or will use 3D printing to enhance their core competitiveness.

A new business model, MDC-DM, is created through BMIC, which allows 3D-printing garment enterprises to meet the challenges of digital transformation. In addition, the original canvas of the MDC-DM business model is designed using BMC. Moreover, the ecosystem of the MDC-DM business model is constructed, and its operation mechanisms are comprehensively designed.

In the 21st century, libraries are experiencing a significant decline in users due to shifting reading habits and the impact of technology, necessitating library transformation and a heightened emphasis on library marketing. Special libraries, in particular, rely heavily on patrons for survival, often due to their private ownership and limited resources. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned objectives.

This paper examines the Taste Library, a special library in Hong Kong, and analyzes its current practices based on an interview with its founder, website content, and social media presence. The 7Ps Marketing Mix model is employed to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the library's current market position.

The Taste Library's existing practices exhibit limitations in attracting young patrons. To address this issue, we propose marketing strategies focused on enhancing social network presence, offering digitized content, and engaging in school outreach.

By concentrating on youth marketing, this study offers valuable insights for special libraries in developing strategic plans for transitioning and maintaining sustainability.

Few studies concentrate on marketing small special libraries, particularly in the East, within today's digitized economy.

The paper aims to illuminate the relationship between attitude toward the hotel’s website (e-servicescape) and purchase intention. It proposes modeling the dimension of the hotel’s website, its impact on building attitude toward the website and the relations with purchase intention. Further, the role of social risk arising from COVID-19 on the relationship between attitude and purchase intention is explored.

The authors conducted empirical research using an online questionnaire based on a comprehensive evaluation of prior literature. The online questionnaire has 15 questions, and data is gathered from guests who have visited the hotel’s website in the preceding year. SmartPLS was used to analyze the data. Attitude toward the website has been identified as a higher-order factor, and a two-stage embedding technique was adopted for analysis.

The paper gives empirical evidence about how different dimensions of a hotel’s website influence one’s attitude. The finding indicates that the ambience factor, i.e. how effectively a website provides a pleasant and interesting atmosphere for online visitors, is the most critical component for attitude development. Additionally, the finding reveals the negative moderating effect of social risk on the relationship between attitude and purchase intention.

Since demographic factors play a significant role in the social-risk component, the study findings may lack generalizability. As a result, scholars are urged to do more study on the offered ideas.

The paper includes implications for the development of a better e-servicescape, which should incorporate the dimensions discussed in the study to entice the customers for hotel booking and can remove the fear of social risk.

This paper addresses an established need by examining how social risk affects the relationship between attitude toward a website and purchase intention.

The servicescape model has been widely adapted in various service industries, but this model may not be applicable if the exhibition is transformed from physical to online. Moreover, there is only a handful of research on online exhibitions; studies focusing on visitor behaviors from various types of online exhibitions and the differences between genders are still lacking. This study aims to examine the different variables in the e-servicescape model and discuss how e-servicescape affects visitor behavior based on the exhibition types and gender differences.

The e-servicescape model is adapted in this study. Qualitative interviews were conducted prior to a quantitative online survey to examine by regression analysis the relationships among the dimensions in e-servicescape and how it affects visitor subsequent behavior. Data analyses are based on the differences between exhibition types and gender differences in response to the three environmental dimensions, namely, aesthetic appeal, layout and functionality, and security concern.

The findings show that visitors pay more attention to artistic enjoyment in art-related exhibitions and focus on informative issues in other types of exhibitions. “Aesthetic appeal” and “layout and functionality” are important to both genders, but little concern is shown to computer security issues. Female visitors are concerned with aesthetic design and male visitors stress layout and functionality elements. In terms of the security concerns, females have no concern about cookies function, while males have no concern on leaving search history on the website.

There is no previous relevant research on the relationships and influence between e-servicescape and online exhibition; this study focuses on the application of e-servicescape to the online exhibition industry and helps fill this research gap.

This study aims to examine the role of the servicescape in the customer experience management (CEM) of a themed amusement park following the COVID-19 pandemic. Considering the managers’ and customers’ perspectives, this study specifically addresses the following three research questions: first, What changes have occurred in the servicescape following the adoption of safety measures in the park in response to the COVID-19 pandemic? Second, What are the effects of these safety measures in relation to CEM? Third, What are the changes that could be maintained in the future to continue improving the customer experiential journey in the park?

A single case study method was adopted. Gardaland Park was selected as the case for this study. Data were collected from several sources: in-depth interviews with managers of Gardaland Park, focus group interviews with customers, and the corporate website and documentary. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to examine the data.

The findings reveal that safety measures affect the physical, social and digital (e- and smart) servicescape by influencing the aesthetic (reassurance), entertainment (relaxation), escapist (enjoyment and distraction) and educational (learning) experiences. Among the various changes implemented, the digital servicescape can be improved in the future when the pandemic is over by providing flexible solutions in relation to services at the park (e.g. virtual queuing) or on the website (e.g. dynamic booking).

The findings provide park managers with practical advice about servicescape organization to facilitate offering safe and memorable customer experiences.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to address the effects of safety measures on the servicescape and CEM in themed amusement parks after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The construction industry is widely recognized as one of the most hazardous sectors in the world. Despite extensive research on safety management, a critical issue remains that insufficient attention is devoted to safety practices in rural areas. Notably, accidents frequently occur during the construction of rural self-built houses (RSH) in China. Safety management tends to be overlooked due to the perceived simplicity of the construction process. Furthermore, it is essential to acknowledge that China currently lacks comprehensive laws and regulations governing safety management in RSH construction. This paper aims to analyze the behavior of key stakeholders (including households, workmen, rural village committee and the government) and propose recommendations to mitigate safety risks associated with RSH construction.

This paper applies evolutionary game theory to analyze the symbiotic evolution among households, workmen and rural village committee, in situations with or without government participation. Additionally, numerical simulation is utilized to examine the outcomes of various strategies implemented by the government.

Without government participation, households, workmen, and rural village committee tend to prioritize maximizing apparent benefits, often overlooking the potential safety risks. Numerical simulations reveal that while government involvement can guide these parties towards safer decisions, achieving the desired outcomes necessitates the adoption of reasonable and effective strategies. Thus, the government needs to offer targeted subsidies to these stakeholders.

Considering that during the construction phase, stakeholders are the main administrators accountable for safety management. However, there exists insufficient research examining the impact of stakeholder behavior on RSH construction safety. This study aims to analyze the behavior of stakeholders about how to reduce the safety risks in building RSH. Thus, the authors intend to contribute to knowledge in this area by establishing evolutionary game model. Firstly, this study carried out a theoretical by using tripartite evolutionary game to reveal the reasons for the high safety risk during building RSH. Practically, this research points out the important role of households, workmen and rural village committee in improving safety management in rural areas. Besides, some suggestions are proposed to the government about how to reduce construction safety risks in rural areas.

The marketisation of higher education fosters the notion of students as consumers, highlighting the shifting dynamics of student–teacher relationships. This paper aims to contribute to ongoing discussions about students as consumers and their involvement in pedagogical practices. We explore students’ experiences in short-term study abroad (SA) programmes that involve collaborative learning, examining how a consumerism-oriented approach affects students’ perceptions of their pedagogical identities and student–teacher pedagogical relationships.

A qualitative exploratory study was conducted to capture students’ rich and subjective perceptions and experiences. The data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 15 Chinese undergraduate students who participated in a short-term SA programme at a UK university. Following data translation and transcription, a thematic analysis approach facilitated our exploration.

Chinese students engage in SA programmes as a strategic investment in personal growth and transformation, with their consumer-oriented identity fostering a mutually beneficial relationship with educators and group members. This consumer mindset appears to enhance active student engagement and, to some extent, create reciprocal student–teacher interactions through power sharing and collaborative involvement.

This study presents empirical data exploring the impact of consumer identity on the dynamics of student–teacher relationships in the SA context. It provides recommendations for implementing pedagogical approaches designed to mediate the influence of consumerism on student engagement, particularly in shaping collaborative student–teacher relationships. This study offers insights for future research on the effects of consumerism in higher education within cross-cultural contexts.