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Taiwan’s hotel industry was adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to examine the effect of strategic choices by Taiwanese international tourist hotels before and during the pandemic environments.

A data envelopment analysis (DEA)-based Malmquist methodology is used in this study to provide a mechanism to assess Taiwanese hotel strategy performance. Changes in the productivity and performance of Taiwanese international tourist hotels were analyzed in the periods before and during the pandemic to uncover insights useful should a similar crisis occur in the future. Panel data were obtained from the annual report of international tourist hotels published by the Taiwan Tourism Bureau from 2017–2020. Two groups of hotels were analyzed in this study: city hotels and scenic hotels.

The findings of this study reveal that chain hotels tended to perform better than independent hotels in both city and scenic areas during the global pandemic. Specifically, the crisis caused a substantial decline in productivity and profitability for international tourist hotels in Taipei City during the COVID-19 period. Compared to city hotels, findings also indicate that most international tourist hotels in scenic areas were able to maintain better productivity, including larger-sized scenic hotels.

The DEA-based analysis provides unique and valuable insights for hotel firm leaders on how to better identify and make strategic choices when responding to future crises.

Currently, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and several outer space industry multibillionaire entrepreneurs – e.g., Elon Musk (SpaceX), Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin), and Richard Branson (Virgin Galactic), to name a few – are actively engaged in outer space research that reports innovative advances, such as outer space mining, outer space tourism, outer space medicine labs, outer space terraforming of Mars and moon, and altering celestial bodies and terrestrial humans to enhance extraterrestrial survivability. All these advances induce serious ethical concerns of human identity and dignity and destiny, human rights and privileges over earth and her resources, and cosmic sustainability. Further, the current understanding of sustainability development is highly anthropocentric (i.e., the earth and cosmos are meant solely for man's use) and limited in scope as a terrestrial, temporal, economic, and pro-human project. Critical thinking invites sustainability development to include trans-terrestrial, trans-temporal, trans-economic, and transhuman developments. While outer space research certainly offers great hopes of newer living spaces and resources for mankind already strapped by depleted terrestrial habitable spaces, we believe that this capital-intensive “elitist” unregulated outer space research industry may benefit a chosen few at the expense of polarizing mankind in terms of one's undeserved financial capacities to afford extraterrestrial spaces and privileges while endangering Nature by deploying massive terrestrial energy resources for outer space rocket launches causing trailing cosmic debris and planetary pollution. We frame this complex problem into terrestrial humanist issues versus extraterrestrial transhumanist issues, each domain triggered by pro-planetary versus pro-cosmic breakthrough technologies, thus creating a fourfold framework that enables us to explore a distributed ethical strategic understanding and ethical resolution of outer space ethical concerns.

The study seeks to shed light on the estimates of the carbon shadow price in the literature relying on frontier techniques. The shadow price of undesirable outputs, such as greenhouse gas emissions, assists policymakers in determining the most cost-effective methods for reducing emissions.

The study relies on the PSALSAR and PRISMA approaches for a systematic literature review. The Web of Science and Scopus databases were used for the references.

Both parametric and nonparametric methods have been employed in the literature to estimate the shadow prices of undesirable outputs. Also, results were discussed according to the methodological and application aspects, and broad conclusions on obtained results were provided, bridging climate change mitigation policies and the shadow price of undesirable outputs.

The present study applies an integrated method, PSALSAR, to conduct a systematic review of 53 studies published between 2014 and 2023 in which efficiency models were applied to estimate the shadow price of undesirable outputs, especially CO₂. After presenting the most applicable parametric and nonparametric estimation models, a systematic summary of included articles was provided, highlighting the key features of publications.

The case study’s learning objectives, structured according to Bloom’s taxonomy, engage students in higher-order thinking for critical analysis and strategic decision-making. After completion of the case study, students will be able to analyze sustainability practices and evaluate the family’s distribution model for alignment with sustainability and potential expansion strategies; explore adaptive strategies to identify adaptive solutions to challenges such as climate change and economic fluctuations; apply theoretical frameworks to balance exclusivity and growth in the olive oil industry; and assess strategic decisions considering financial viability, environmental responsibility, community engagement and sustainability.

The case study centers on the Abi Raad olive farm, a multigenerational family-owned business deeply rooted in olive cultivation traditions in Selfaya village, within Mount Lebanon’s Aley district. Led by Richard Abi Raad, the family specializes in olive cultivation, olive oil production and handmade soap manufacturing within the agriculture sector. In 2023, the organization faces significant challenges such as rising labor costs and the exploration of sustainable labor sources for future growth. Abi Raad, the primary protagonist, grapples with critical decisions regarding maintaining traditional distribution methods versus expanding into broader markets. His choices must balance the preservation of cultural heritage with the need to uphold brand integrity and competitiveness. The case study traces the family’s historical journey in olive farming and explores their contemporary strategic dilemmas, offering insights into sustainable agriculture, entrepreneurship and navigating modern challenges while honoring tradition. Through the narrative of the Abi Raad family-owned business, the case study provides profound lessons in strategic decision-making and ensuring long-term sustainability.

This case study is suitable for students studying master’s in business.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

This study extends the current understanding of halal tourism at an island destination. Specifically, this study aims to explore the attributes of halal tourism in the local islands of the Maldives, a fully Muslim country where tourism is the primary source of income for residents. To accomplish this, Muslim travellers’ experiences were examined using the process theory of travel, the halal tourism concept and the service marketing perspective.

The study used a qualitative research methodology and conducted interviews with Muslim travellers visiting the local islands of the Maldives.

The findings affirmed the five established generic attributes of halal tourism and generated another three emergent attributes of halal tourism, specific to an island destination. The study further enhances the existing knowledge of the generic attributes of halal food and beverage, prayers and mutual respect and benefits. It also establishes that the dimensions of safety and privacy, value for money, perishability and heterogeneity characterise all the emerging halal tourism attributes. The study concludes that halal tourism is an experience imbued with values that promotes dignified tourism.

The findings on the specific attributes of halal tourism at an island destination extend overall understanding of the halal tourism concept and process. The fact that the Maldives is entirely Muslim offers a unique opportunity to explore the normative attributes of halal tourism in an island destination. This enhanced understanding contributes to effective managerial practices aimed at developing competitive halal tourism services.

This study aims to identify how Brazilian followers of an X/Twitter profile engage in theory-building processes leading up to the January 8, 2023 riots in Brasília, the Brazilian capital. This paper seeks to understand how cognitive and sociocultural processes weave together to weaponize collective knowledge construction that, in isolation, could be seen as virtuous but, in specific contexts, might lead to radicalization.

This study uses qualitative content analysis of comments on ambiguous X/Twitter posts published by a conspiratorial profile associated with former President Jair Bolsonaro. Content was published in the three weeks that preceded the coup d’état attempt by Bolsonaro supporters on January 8, 2023.

Findings point to users’ resorting to intuitive knowledge to support sensemaking processes in their search for subliminal meanings in tweets. That includes, for example, attempts to crack binary code-encrypted messages. This study also identified practices of cross-media sourcing, where users collect evidence from alternative social media channels to interpret messages containing verbal and visual information. Finally, this study found that religious symbols are often instrumentalized and become a lens through which followers organize information to integrate with their existing knowledge and assumptions.

With this work, the authors build on existing scholarship on epistemologies used by conspiratorial and radicalized groups as they engage in systematic sensemaking and often refer to religion to interpret messages that motivate extreme political position-taking. This study addresses a similar phenomenon as it unfolds in an understudied geographical context (Brazil) and seeks to demonstrate how individuals engage in collective sensemaking practices. The authors hope that their findings inform educators as they explore the affordances of social media to foster positive collective learning experiences in reasoning supported by social media.

The originality of this study is twofold. First, this study uses an analytical lens that draws on the learning sciences and cognitive science for inquiry of radicalization happening around social media. The authors understand that social media lend themselves particularly interesting to the analysis, as they are settings where notions of mastery blur, and individuals engage in conversations on complex, controversial topics. With that engagement, they demonstrate willingness to reason collectively. Second, this study investigates how those phenomena unfold in an understudied context, responding to calls for more diversity in research in the learning sciences as well as in media studies.

As the hospitality business adapts to the digital age, the importance of using Virtual Design (VD) to create memorable visitor experiences has grown. This study aims to investigate the potential of VD in the hospitality sector, particularly regarding the improvement of guests' overall experiences.

The research study examines how Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and other digital technologies are currently used in VD firms. It explores how these simulated architectural features are implemented in other facets of the hospitality experience, like the decor of guest rooms and restaurants and staff responsiveness to guests' needs.

The study also examines VD's potential outcomes and advantages for the hotel industry and its clients. It investigates the potential of VD to help hospitality businesses offer more customised services, boost customer loyalty and gain an edge in the market. VD implementation in the hospitality business may face several obstacles, some of which are discussed in this study.

Methods include both qualitative and quantitative techniques, such as interviews with experts, guest surveys and an examination of the use of VD in specific hotels. This study intends to help the hotel industry benefit from a VD by analysing real-world case studies and gathering empirical data that can be used to draw conclusions and formulate recommendations.

With the goal of helping consumers bounce back from the financial challenges they faced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many firms developed and announced consumer-targeted resiliency programs (e.g. Walgreens waived delivery fees, Associated Bank allowed deferred mortgage payments). However, there is a paucity of research examining the unique features of these programs, and whether firms' investors (the first external stakeholder group to provide them with feedback regarding their strategies) were receptive to these programs during a period of time in which firms themselves were suffering financially. Drawing on resilience theory and stakeholder theory, the present research incorporates an event study of consumer-targeted resiliency program announcements to understand their financial implications for firms, and to learn whether firms witnessed different financial effects as a result of firm- and program-specific factors.

This study referred to business news publications and newswire services to collect a comprehensive list of consumer-targeted resiliency programs announced by publicly traded U.S. firms during the pandemic. The resulting dataset consisted of 145 announcements made during the period of February–June 2020. An event study was conducted in order to precisely measure the main effect of consumer-targeted resiliency programs on firm value, as manifested through abnormal stock returns. Finally, a moderation analysis (regression) was conducted to uncover whether firm characteristics or specific features of firms' consumer-targeted resiliency programs lead certain firms to witness stronger financial effects than others.

The main effect of consumer-targeted resiliency programs on firm value was found to be positive – a 1.9% increase on average. The moderation analysis finds that non-financial firms were rewarded more positively than financial firms (e.g. banks and credit card companies). In addition, financial aid (i.e. allowing customers to defer their payments to a firm for its products/services, versus a reduction in the price of a product/service or offering it for free or giving cash back to customers) and temporal characteristics (i.e. an offer being framed as limited-time, vs being indefinite or for the foreseeable future) are not found to have a moderating effect.

This theory-driven empirical study uncovers practical implications for managers of firms interested in whether investing in corporate social responsibility during times of crisis is a wise allocation of resources. Any form of financial aid for consumers, regardless of temporal limitations, is received positively by investors.