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The Dajia Mazu pilgrimage is one of the most well-known events in the world. It not only satisfies tourists' spiritual desires for religious beliefs but also drives the development of destination tourism. In recent years, the tourism industry has been severely impacted by COVID-19. However, tourists participating in the Dajia Mazu pilgrimage continue to do so without fear of the pandemic. Therefore, understanding the relationship between tourists' attraction to religious tourism, perception of happiness, and willingness to revisit can contribute to the sustainable development of religious tourism, especially in the context of COVID-19. Accordingly, this study explored the sustainable development of Taiwan's religious tourism from the perspectives of tourism attraction, experiential value, happiness, and revisit intention. The study conducted quantitative research to address the research issue. Three hundred and fifty valid questionnaires were collected through on-site questionnaire distribution, and the data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and the structural equation partial least squares method. According to the results, the tourism attraction of the Dajia Mazu pilgrimage and the experiential value of tourists significantly impact happiness and revisit intention. Happiness is part of the intermediary variables of tourism attraction, experiential value, and revisit intention. Notably, the attraction of the Dajia Mazu pilgrimage and the experiential value pursued by tourists have not diminished despite the pandemic. Instead, the attraction has become an opportunity for tourists to seek spiritual comfort and support sustainable religious tourism development. Accordingly, spiritual comfort and maintaining their health and safety can be considered strategies to promote the sustainability of religious tourism in Taiwan.
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PurposeThe main purpose of this paper is to examine the direct effects of knowledge sharing and systems thinking on creativity and organizational sustainability in the hotel industry in Malaysia. In addition, the study aims to examine the mediation effect of creativity between knowledge sharing, systems thinking and organizational sustainability.Design/methodology/approachA survey method based on a questionnaire was used to gather data from 407 middle managers in the hotel industry in Malaysia. The partial least squares technique was used to examine the hypotheses.FindingsThe study found support for the effects of systems thinking and knowledge sharing on organizational sustainability. It also found support for the impact of creativity on organizational sustainability. Besides, the mediating role of creativity between systems thinking and organizational sustainability, and between knowledge sharing and organizational sustainability was also supported by data.Originality/valueThis is a pioneer work that has combined various human resources (i.e. systems thinking, knowledge sharing, creativity) to examine their impacts on organizational sustainability. Moreover, this work has established comparatively new relationships, i.e. the impact of systems thinking and knowledge sharing on creativity and organizational sustainability. In addition, the mediation role of creativity between systems thinking, knowledge sharing and organizational sustainability is relatively new in the literature. Furthermore, this study has confirmed the validity and reliability of knowledge sharing and organizational sustainability at first and second orders in the hotel industry in non-Western context.
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As COVID‐19 has caused unprecedented social change, governments are implementing several social measures to control transmission. Among them, social distancing is being enforced in almost all countries and is effective in preventing infection. Based on the importance of social distancing, this study identifies factors influencing the intention towards social distancing. The research model was developed by introducing risk perception in the theory of planned behaviour. To examine the proposed model, a survey was conducted with 339 university students from two countries, South Korea and Vietnam. The data were analysed using the partial least squares method. The results show that social distancing attitude and perceived behavioural control significantly influence social distancing intention. The findings indicate that both affective risk perception and cognitive risk perception serve as imperative factors in the formation of social distancing attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. However, subjective norms and nationality do not affect social distancing intention. Based on the results, suggestions are made for policymakers to establish effective social measures.
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The COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown pushed people to buy more online. With the increase in online shopping, there was also an increase in ethical issues with electronic retailers resulting from problems with products, misleading price practices, lack of customers' personal and financial data protection, non-delivery of goods, and misleading advertising. This study aimed to determine whether consumers' perceptions of e-retailers' ethics influence online customer experience and satisfaction when purchasing products and services. A research model was developed based on the literature on ethics in e-commerce. To fulfill the objective, a research model on consumer perceptions of ethics in online retailing was tested based on answers of 501 Brazilian online shoppers. Data were gathered through an online questionnaire and analyzed using structural equation modeling with an estimation of minimum least squares. The results indicated significant relations between the e-retailer's ethics, the online experience, and customer satisfaction with the mediation of ethical beliefs, suggesting that the e-retailer's ethics can potentially stimulate a good online consumer experience and satisfaction when purchasing on the internet and may contribute to the relationship between the consumer and the e-retailer. Furthermore, ethical beliefs can mediate these relations, collaborating with the effect of e-retailers' ethics on the consumer's experience and satisfaction. These results represent an advance in the study of new ethical dimensions in electronic retail, which currently are reduced to security and privacy issues. In practice, this study resulted in new knowledge about ethical practices that can guide electronic retailers in the adoption of new customer prospecting strategies. It also highlights the importance of improving regulations that prevent certain behaviors from happening. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd
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Customer journeys in tourism are becoming more complex, often including multiple touch points that can influence expectations, experiences, and travel behaviors. The management of these different interactions is further complicated if tourist destinations face natural or man-made crises (e.g., financial crises, COVID-19). The current research takes a comprehensive look at how negative word-of-mouth (WOM) shapes pre-consumption expectations that drive actual tourist experiences and subsequent satisfaction behaviors. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), findings from 188 tourists confirm the influence of uncontrollable, negative WOM on destination image. Yet an actual, positive experience negates these negative pre-trip influences. Tourism managers are rewarded with satisfied and loyal tourists in response to creating positive experiences even at crisis impacted destinations. © The Author(s) 2021.
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Purpose: COVID-19 pandemic has shattered the economic systems all around the world while creating numerous problems which were faced by all, especially international migrants. The present study offers a qualitative and quantitative perspective on the distress of international migrants and their repatriation intention during the pandemic period. Design/methodology/approach: In-depth semi-structured interviews of 30 respondents belonging to five host nations, Australia, the USA, the UK, New Zealand and Canada, revealed diverse issues. Based on qualitative study findings and past literature, 22 purposeful statements about six constructs – financial issues, social issues, mobility constraints, psychological problems, healthcare issues, and repatriation intentions – were developed. These statements were measured on a seven-point Likert scale and shared online with international migrants from India residing in the host nations. Data collected from 496 international migrants from October 2020 to July 2021 were used to analyze the influence of various determinants on the repatriation intentions by partial least square-structural equation modeling using SmartPLS software. Findings: The analysis results revealed that the role of financial, social, mobility, psychological and healthcare issues was significant in strengthening the repatriation intentions of the migrants. There is a need to create job opportunities, retrain laid-off workers and formulate migrant inclusive policies. Originality/value: Although some studies have highlighted a few problems faced by international migrants, their impact on repatriation intentions has not been studied yet. The present study fills this gap and analyzes the repatriation intention of international migrants in light of different problems they faced during the pandemic. Peer review: The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-04-2022-0233. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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This paper examines the role of Intellectual Capital (IC) and its contribution to Business Sustainability (BS) among Large Manufacturing Firms (LMF) in Malaysia. It seeks to explain the relationship between them under turbulent market conditions. The study used the survey method to collect data from 203 large companies, and the hypotheses were tested using Partial-Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling. Based on the findings, two dimensions of IC, namely Human capital (HC) and Structural Capital (SC), had a significant effect on business sustainability, but Relational Capital (RC) did not. Also results indicate that Market Turbulence (MT) moderates the relationship between two IC dimensions, HC and RC but not that between SC and BS. The study findings can be used as guidelines by CEOs of LMFs, policy makers and researchers to comprehend positive the influence of MT and IC on BS. © 2022
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Purpose: Scholars have concentrated their efforts on COVID-19's impact on industries worldwide in order to manage timely supply chain disruptions. Epidemic outbursts are a unique supply chain risk that is distinguished by prolonged disruption propagation, disruption existence, and high uncertainty. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of R&D investment and firm performance in mediating the relationship between disruption risk and supply chain performance in Pakistani manufacturing industries and supply chain employees during the recovery phase of the COVID-19 pandemic via application of dynamic capability theory. Methodology: From July 21 to August 23, 2020, three hundred and eighteen employees from supply chains of manufacturing industries in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan, participated in this cross-sectional online web-based survey. The four standard research scales were used to examine the research and development, disruption risk, firm, and supply chain performance. The response link was distributed to respondents via Facebook, WhatsApp, and email. The data was analyzed using structural equation modelling and a partial least squares technique in the study. Results: The study's findings suggest that disruption risk, research and development investment, and firm performance all improve supply chain performance, but the mediation effect is unsupported by the data. These measures help to plan a better supply chain in the face of disruption risk, and they provide one of the timely empirical conclusions on the role of R&D investment in mitigating risk disruptions and improving supply chain performance
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An increase in number of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases will lead to more cluster discovery in Malaysia. Furthermore, with the increasing population, city growth, workplace income needs, high-risk groups, and other relevant factors can contribute to the formation of the new clusters. The cluster distribution of the disease could be seen by mapping and spatial analysis to understand their spatial phenomena of the disease dynamics. The purpose of the study is to analyse the spatial distribution of COVID-19 cluster cases in Selangor for year 2020. Two objectives of the study are i) to determine the hotspot location of the COVID- 19 cluster, and ii)to examine the spatial distribution of the factors affecting the COVID-19 cluster. The data processing was conducted using hotspot analysis and ordinary least squares (OLS) in ArcGIS Pro and Microsoft Excel to explore the local disease phenomena. TheCOVID-19 cases was most prevalent in the Petaling district, followed by Hulu Langat and Klang. The virus had the least impact in Sabak Bernam, Hulu Selangor, Kuala Selangor, Sepang, Kuala Langat, and Gombak. Three environmental factors of population density, the effects of urbanisation, and workplace cases were influential variables at the local clusters. These findings could help the local agencies to facilitate and control the spread mode of the virus in a spatial human environment.
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Tele-Diagnosis is beneficial for medical care in areas with inadequate resources, which helps control the spread of Covid-19 in the current pandemic. Most teleoperated diagnostics are dependent on humans, possibly leading to cognitive issue caused by distanced communication. In this paper, we propose a local haptic enhancement framework to facilitate the remote palpation. The deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG) algorithm is exploited to compensate for signal transmission due to latency, allowing human to operate without the sense of delay. With the help of weighted recursive least squares (WRLS) method, the interactive force can be estimated on the patient's side despite the lack of force sensors. Fuzzy inference is used to diagnose and classify the extent of disease based on the estimated force and motion state on the remote side, thereby leveraging the remote sensory information to conduct autonomous reasoning. Finally, the final diagnosis is derived by performing minimum risk Bayesian decision based on local and remote inference results. Comparative simulation results have validated the superior performances of the proposed scheme. © 2022 IEEE.
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In December 2019, in Wuhan, China, a new disease was detected, and the virus easily spread throughout other nations. March 2, 2020, Morocco announced 1st infection of coronavirus. Morocco verified a total of 653,286 cases, 582,692 recovered, 60,579 active case, and 10,015 as confirmatory fatalities, as of 4 August 2021. The objective of this article is to study the mathematical modeling of undetected cases of the novel coronavirus in Morocco. The model is shown to have disease-free and an endemic equilibrium point. We have discussed the local and global stability of these equilibria. The parameters of the model and undiscovered instances of COVID-19 were assessed by the least squares approach in Morocco and have been eliminated. We utilized a Matlab tool to show developments in undiscovered instances in Morocco and to validate predicted outcomes. Like results, until August 4, 2021, the total number of infected cases of COVID-19 in Morocco is 24,663,240, including 653,286 confirmed cases, against 24,009,954 undetected. Further, our approach gives a good approximation of the actual COVID-19 data from Morocco and will be used to estimate the undetected cases of COVID-19 in other countries of the world and to study other pandemics that have the same nature of spread as COVID-19.
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The main objective of our study is to analyse the influence of human capital on agricultural cereal production in the CEMAC countries. To achieve this, we use a set data from World Bank (WDI) publications from the period of 2001 to 2017. These data are analysed by the fixed effects model following the ordinary least squares method. The given results show that an increase of one-unit in the total primary school enrolment variable leads to an increase of a 0.672-unit in cereal production. A one-unit increase in public spending on health leads to a 0.048-unit increase in cereal production. This means that human capital positively influences cereal agricultural production in the CEMAC countries. It is commend that producers be trained and supervised on appropriate seed techniques and that an observatory be set up to monitor and evaluate the training and supervision of farmers.
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Purpose>The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that affect students’ behavioral intentions to use virtual classrooms at Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT) in Jordan.Design/methodology/approach>A quantitative research approach was adopted, an online survey method was used and the data were collected among students at PSUT in Jordan. A total of 511 responses were usable for analysis. A structural equation modeling partial least squares technique was used to examine the hypothesized model.Findings>The findings reveal that the proposed factors have direct and indirect relationships with behavioral intentions to use virtual classrooms. They show that students’ satisfaction has a direct influence on behavioral intention, while other variables such as instructor characteristics, virtual classroom quality, perceived self-efficacy, perceived organizational support, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness have an indirect effect on behavioral intentions to use virtual classrooms.Research limitations/implications>The study was conducted at PSUT in Jordan, which could limit the generalizability of the findings. Furthermore, the present study measured students’ behavioral intentions to use virtual classrooms and future research should consider the actual use of virtual classrooms.Practical implications>The findings of this study offer significant and useful information to policymakers, instructors, developers and students regarding the use of virtual classrooms in universities. Based on students’ needs and readiness, the findings identify which factors to consider when developing an e-learning system to enhance learning and teaching performance.Originality/value>This study extends existing knowledge by developing a conceptual model to identify the key factors of virtual classroom adoption in higher education institutions in Arab countries. This study contributes to the literature in the context of e-learning by validating an extended technology acceptance model from an Arab countries perspective and considering the differences in culture, learning style and physical environment compared to developed countries.
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PurposeThis study aims to analyze the effect of digitalization on 28 European countries’ subjective wellbeing by using macro (aggregate level) indicators.Design/methodology/approachThe research investigates the impact of digitalization (Digital Economy and Society Index [DESI]) on life satisfaction through its components. The study uses several models based on the two-stage least squares method.FindingsThe findings show that internet connectivity, use of the internet and integrated digital technology are positively related to life satisfaction. Furthermore, the results revealed that human capital and digital public services are negatively associated with it. The study also suggested that digital skills, e-health, and e-government services do not necessarily increase an individual’s life satisfaction level. The internet’s use appeared to be the most effective digitalization component in affecting life satisfaction in Europe.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is based on the DESI index from 2014 to 2019. Although it does not influence the outcome, future research may consider additional indexes such as Digital Adoption Index and Digital Transformation Index and extend the study period.Practical implicationsThe study helps the policymakers directing their attention to the importance of digitalization on life satisfaction.Originality/valueThis work extends the limited understanding of subjective wellbeing, digitalization and the digital economy and society index in terms of theoretical implications.
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Attracting and retaining international students has been widely discussed in higher education settings. Increasing the number of international students has become an indispensable strategy for national and global competition. This study focuses on effective strategies and international students’ issues regarding satisfaction in the most popular STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) programs. We designed a structural equation modeling (SEM) method to determine the effect of institutional mediation between push factors and satisfaction factors for the development of better strategies by which to attract and retain international students. This study employed a self-designed questionnaire to collect data: 485 degree-seeking international students in STEM programs were invited and successfully participated in this study during spring 2021 in Taiwan. IBM SPSS 26 and AMOS 26 (Analysis of Moment Structure) were used to carry out the data analysis. We employed reliability, factor, and SEM analyses. This study assumed that the impact of push factors could be modified by institutional situations and result in international students’ satisfaction with their learning and environment and regarding migration policy. The results revealed that the predictors, mediation, and criteria were significant at the 0.05 or 0.01 levels. The findings suggest that push factors impact international students’ satisfaction when using institutional leadership and strategy. The results of the bootstrap with a generalized least-squares method showed that the SEM model fit in 2000 bootstrap samples. The effect of institutional mediation can provide useful information for STEM programs to boost their future recruitment and retention strategies. This study provides an innovative approach to the detection of issues among international students in specific programs. The design of the study can be extended to similar higher education settings. These findings can enrich our knowledge regarding attracting and retaining global students in higher education.
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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose and empirically test intellectual capital (IC) as a mediator in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) and financial performance (FP) relationship.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical research was conducted on 345 European firms listed in the STOXX Europe 600 index. To evaluate the mediating effect of IC, we applied the four-step Baron and Kenny model, tested through an ordinary least squares regression analysis.FindingsThe findings highlighted a partial mediation of IC on the CSR–FP relationship, suggesting that the implementation of CSR strategies has a positive effect on the development of firms' IC, which in turn enhances firms' competitive advantage and superior long-term FPs.Originality/valueWe found a new mediator in the CSR–FP relationship and we contribute to a new line of research that aims to study environmental and sustainability aspects strictly interrelated with IC and performances (sustainable intellectual capital).
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International markets and digital technologies are considered among the factors affecting business innovation. The emergence and deployment of digital technologies in emerging markets increase the innovation potential in businesses. Companies with an entrepreneurial orientation also strengthen their innovation capabilities. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of international markets and new digital technologies on business innovation in emerging markets, and to estimate the mediating effect of entrepreneurial orientation on this relationship. The present research was applied research in terms of aim and descriptive survey in terms of data collection method and quantitative in terms of the type of collected data. A standard questionnaire was to collect data. The study’s statistical population consisted of all companies providing business services in Tehran, Iran. To analyse the data, the structural equation modelling method with partial least squares method and Smart PLS-3 Software was used. The results revealed that international markets and digital technologies are positively associated with innovation. They also revealed that when a company’s entrepreneurial orientation increases, the digital technologies and international markets will be more involved in mutual relationships.
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The COVID-19 pandemics challenges governments across the world. To develop adequate responses, they need accurate models for the spread of the disease. Using least squares, we fitted Bertalanffy-Pütter (BP) trend curves to data about the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 from 49 countries and provinces where the peak of the first wave had been passed. BP-models achieved excellent fits (R-squared above 99%) to all data. Using them to smoothen the data, in the median one could forecast that the final count (asymptotic limit) of infections and fatalities would be 2.48 times (95% confidence limits 2.42-2.6) and 2.67 times (2.39-2.765) the total count at the respective peak (inflection point). By comparison, using logistic growth would evaluate this ratio as 2.00 for all data. The case fatality rate, defined as the quotient of the asymptotic limits of fatalities and confirmed infections, was in the median 4.85% (confidence limits 4.4%-6.5%). Our result supports the strategies of governments that kept the epidemic peak low, as then in the median fewer infections and fewer fatalities could be expected.