Modelling the significance of celebrity endorsement and consumer interest on attitude, purchase intention, and willingness to pay a premium price for green skincare products.

Due to the major shift in online purchasing during the COVID-19 lockdown, celebrity endorsement marketing has gained traction. Concurrently, COVID-19 has also transformed consumers' attitudes toward using eco-friendly products, such as green skincare products, to ensure a healthier lifestyle. This study developed a comprehensive framework based on the stimuli-organism-response theory and the parasocial interaction theory to empirically evaluate the impact of celebrities' credibility attributes and consumers' interests in celebrities on their attitudes towards advertisements for endorsed green skincare products, their intentions to make a purchase, and their willingness to pay a premium price for these products. 778 Malaysian consumers participated in the online survey, and their responses were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The results showed the positive effects of credibility traits (trustworthiness - ß = 0.100, p-value = 0.026; exquisite personality - ß = 0.075, p-value = 0.028; dignified image - ß = 0.152, p-value = 0.001; expertise - ß = 0.221, p-value <0.001), and customer attention to celebrities (ß = 0.184, p-value <0.001) on their attitudes toward endorsed advertisements. Likewise, credibility features (exquisite personality - ß = 0.116, p-value = 0.002; dignified image - ß = 0.112, p-value = 0.017; expertise - ß = 0.207, p-value <0.001) and customers' companionship with celebrities (ß = 0.142, p-value = 0.001) also have a significant positive impact on attitudes towards brands. Finally, consumers' purchasing intentions and willingness to pay premium prices for green skincare products were strongly influenced by their attitude toward advertising (ß = 0.484, p-value <0.001) and brands (ß = 0.326, p-value <0.001). Evidently, the findings of this study may help players in the cosmetics industry enhance their marketing and promotion tactics for eco-friendly beauty and personal care products.

Investors' risk aversion and government policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic

Do government policies during the COVID-19 pandemic affect investors' risk aversion, as proxied by the variance premium? To answer this question, this study examines data regarding government responses from thirteen countries. The empirical analysis indicates that government interventions were not able to substantially reduce variance risk premium in international equity markets. The results also show that economic support policies, containment, and closure regulations, and health system interventions all played a significant role in shaping equity variance risk price.

Effect of restorative experience in reducing the risk perception of COVID-19 infection: Korean male campers' well-being and willingness to pay a premium for camping

During the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, South Korean men exhibited greater affective risk perceptions than women, displaying anxiety and fear of COVID-19 infection as well as emotional distress. Such negative psychological states can be reduced through exposure to natural environments. Natural settings often provide restorative environments promoting individual mental health, psychological stability, and well-being. Therefore, this study aims to examine the roles of restorativeness as perceived by men in mitigating the affective risk perception of COVID-19, improving well-being, and increasing the willingness to pay a premium to camp in the context of nature-based camping. An online survey was conducted with South Korean men who experienced camping during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 208 responses were used for data analysis. The results of structural equation modeling indicated significant relationships between affective risk perception and perceived restorativeness, perceived restorativeness and well-being, and well-being and willingness-to-pay-a-premium. The mediating effect of well-being was also significant. The findings of a multi-group analysis indicated a significant moderating effect of having children on the relationship between perceived restorativeness and well-being, but not on the relationship between well-being and willingness-to-pay-a-premium. The results of this study provide enhanced insight into restorative experiences in nature as a coping mechanism for increased affective risks as perceived by men during the pandemic. In particular, this study examined the psychological benefits of a natural environment in the context of camping and empirically identified the role of camping in promoting a feeling of restorativeness and inducing men's well-being perception by easing negative emotions. This study also provides practitioners with an understanding of changes in men's perceptions and emotional and behavioral responses through positive restorative experiences.Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by MRE Press.

Management of Insurance Premiums (Health) During the Covid-19 Pandemic Associated With Insurance Claims by the Insured

Introduction: Good management of premium funds will create trust for the insured and can even add value to the company. If the management is carried out poorly, it will not only affect one customer but can paralyze other related aspects within the company. One of the cases of failure to pay customer claims occurred at PT Asuransi Jiwasraya which was motivated by the weak application of GCG principles in the management of the company. Meanwhile, government policies in the insurance sector and countercyclical policies did not provide an opportunity for insurance companies that were threatened with default in paying the insured's claims by restructuring payments. Methods: This research was normative legal research using a statute approach and a conceptual approach to solve these problems. In addition to being guided by the applicable regulations, the researcher also analyzed legal issues using existing legal theories. Results: The results in this study stated that the Covid-19 pandemic could be said to be a difficult or hardship situation. Hardship directed the parties to renegotiate legal remedies which could be the right solution if the insurance company could not pay the insurance claim submitted by the insured. Some sectors could still survive during the Covid-19 pandemic, so the current situation can be recovered along with the recovery from the spread of Covid-19. It is not appropriate to call it force majeure which directs the parties to cancel the contract and would be more appropriate if the efforts were taken by the parties to restore the situation through renegotiation. Conclusions: Insurance companies could apply for rescheduling by changing the schedule for fulfilling claims so that there was no need for dispute resolution in court. © 2023 UPM Press. All rights reserved.

Managerial Economics within the Croatia's Insurance Industry

Modern companies need to operate in constantly changing conditions and uncertain changes. Changes started from the fundamental way of doing business, which nowadays is becoming more and more based on digital tools, where new technologies are constantly being implemented, where care for the environment is a necessity, where is a constant striving towards doing green and sustainable business. The production factors labor and capital, which used to be the most important in production, are complemented by knowledge as a production factor that leads all changes in the company. The economy erases its national borders and becomes globally spread. Before business was based on profit, but now business is changing according to socially responsible principles and rules. The previously mentioned changes are taking place in parallel with climate changes, natural disasters that have affected Croatia as well as some other parts of the world, the COVID-19 pandemic (2020.-2021.) and the crisis it has brought, rising inflation (2022.), the war in Ukraine (2022.) and numerous other uncertainties that tomorrow will bring. People realize that it is necessary to be insured, but sometimes just after the accident occurred. All modern companies, including those within the insurance industry, must adapt their operations to all these new challenges and changes. It is the management that plays an important role in enabling business adaptation to new circumstances and further development of the same. Insurance as such has an important role in all of this, because from insurance industry it is required to become more than ever guarantee of stability and economic growth. Although insurance began as an activity based on goodwill and mutual assistance of participants in an informal communities, nowadays it has developed into an extremely complex and demanding activity that protects people and their property. The basic task of insurance companies is distribution of risks from one insured, to all that are insured, and compensation payment of money based on concluded insurance contracts. Profit is still goal by which a company is run, but only profit is not enough, because the interests and needs of wider social communities are also important and needs to be satisfied. The role of managerial economics, which is the core focus in theoretical sense of this paper, is in identifying and predicting possible changes and accordingly suggesting to management how to adapt business to new challenges. Croatia osiguranje as a company with the largest market share in the Croatia's insurance industry was in focus in the whole paper. With inductive and deductive methods are drawn conclusions about management aspects of contemporary companies, as well as the measurement of the business result of insurance companies using the example of Croatia osiguranje company.

Outsourcing or reshoring? A manufacturer?s sourcing strategy in the presence of government subsidy

Multinational firms can outsource to contract manufacturers in low-labor-cost regions. However, in recent years, several developed countries and regions have subsidized their local manufacturers (LM[s], she) to encourage reshoring for external benefit (e.g., creating more domestic jobs or improving industrial struc-ture), especially after the COVID-19 pandemic started. This paper investigates the sourcing problem of an LM with brand premium in the presence of government subsidy and differences in labor costs. An LM faces three options: producing in-house, outsourcing to an original brand manufacturer (OBM, he), which sells competitive substitutes without brand premium, or outsourcing to a non-competing contract manu-facturer (NCM). We find that, first, the LM chooses reshoring if the external benefit or brand premium is sufficiently high. Second, if the LM decides to outsource, she chooses the OBM (NCM) if her brand pre-mium is high (low). Third, the government prefers to subsidize LM reshoring or outsourcing to an NCM. If the government intends to induce LM to reshore, the subsidy should be at a moderate level. Interestingly, when the LM has a low brand premium but chooses outsourcing, the government still subsidizes her to improve her competitiveness.(c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

COVID-19 and commodity pricing premium: Evidence from the Chinese market.

Our paper studies the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on commodity pricing premiums in the Chinese commodity futures market. After summarizing the explanatory power of documented benchmark pricing factors, we apply the difference-in-difference regression for our event study. We document a substantial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on increasing the commodity basis premium by at least 30%. Basis-momentum premium, especially for agriculture futures, also increases during the epidemic. The results are robust and validated by sub-sample regressions. The influence of COVID-19 on the commodity market is more prevailing than the trade war.

The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Emerging Country Stock Markets: Evidence of the Value Effect

We examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on seven emerging stock markets by focusing on the value effect. Our results show that there are significant differences in the value premia before and during the pandemic. Furthermore, the traditional value proxies are no longer good predictors of future stock returns. To further capture the impact the pandemic's progress on stock returns, we estimate Fama-MacBeth regressions by introducing proxies of the pandemic. We uncover heterogeneous responses of emerging markets to the pandemic. These findings provide a wealth of insights on the presence and driving force relevant to the value effect.

DOES THE COVID-19 MEDIA COVERAGE AFFECT AH PREMIUM DISPARITY?

This article explores the dynamic causality between the COVID-19 Media Coverage Index (MCI) in China (Chinese mainland and Hong Kong) and the AH premium index (both price and volatility) by applying a novel time-varying causality technology. Our findings show that the MCIs in China do not significantly cause the log-prices of the AH premium index throughout the full sample period, whereas significantly positive and time-varying causalities from the MCIs in China to the volatilities of the AH premium index are detected. The results thus provide evidence that the change of the MCIs does not lead to a wider or narrower AH premium but unidirectionally causes the change of its volatilities. Furthermore, the effect of MCIs in Chinese mainland on the AH premium volatilities is more pronounced and stable compared to that in Hong Kong, which indicates that the AH premium disparity is more sensitive to the media coverage in the Chinese mainland than in Hong Kong. Finally, the causal relationship from the MCIs in China to the AH premium volatilities disappears after November 2021. Our results provide implications for policymakers to decrease the fluctuation of the AH premium by effectively guiding the trend of media coverage;the results also remind AH stock investors to pay more attention to the COVID-19 media coverage. © 2023, Bucharest University of Economic Studies. All rights reserved.

The interplay of personality traits and motivation in leisure travel decision-making during the pandemic.

COVID-19 has negatively affected the travel and tourism industry and may continue to do so in the future. Therefore, hospitality businesses need to pay attention to consumer reactions, concerns, and motives for travelling in this era. This study leverages the stimulus-organism-behaviour-consequence (SOBC) model to examine psychological factors that influence Japanese travellers' intention to travel and willingness to pay premiums for safe travel by analysing data from 790 respondents. The findings of the study reveal that extraversion positively associates with introjected motivation and negatively with amotivation. Neuroticism personality type positively associates with amotivation and negatively associates with introjected motivation. Introjected motivation positively associates with perception of safe travel during COVID-19, whereas amotivation has a non-significant association with perception of safe travel during COVID-19. Perception of safe travel positively associates with intention to travel and willingness to pay premiums for safe travel. Finally, intention to travel has no effect on willingness to pay premiums for safe travel. These findings provide valuable theoretical and managerial implications.

A big data analysis of COVID-19 impacts on Airbnbs' bookings behavior applying construal level and signaling theories.

This study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumer booking behavior in the peer-to-peer accommodation sector. This study used a dataset composed of 2041,966 raws containing 69,727 properties located in all 21 Italian regions in the pre- and post-COVID-19. Results show that in the pre-COVID-19 period, consumers preferred P2P accommodations with price premiums and located in rural (versus urban) areas. Although the findings reveal a preference for entire apartments over shared accommodation (i.e., room, apartment), this preference did not change significantly after COVID-19 lockdowns. The contribution of this study lies in combining psychological distance theory and signaling theory to assess P2P performance in the pre- and post-COVID-19 periods.

Caged, helpless but not bored: consumption values derived from over-the-top platforms during pandemic

Purpose: The use of over-the-top (OTT) platforms grew substantially after the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. With the pandemic receding, there is a concern that users may not continue with their subscriptions. To counter this, OTT service providers must strategize proactively to retain and acquire new users once the pandemic abates. Positing that understanding the consumption values that users ascribe to OTT platform usage can provide useful customer retention insights, the purpose of this paper is to use the theory of consumption value (TCV) to study the values that users derived from their use of OTT following the onset of the pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: The mixed-method approach is used to collect qualitative and quantitative data. Analysis of qualitative responses collected through interviews of 12 current OTT platform users helped identify two categories of OTT platform-specific values: attribute-level and benefit-based. Next, the study examined the association of values thus identified with one another, as well as with continued intentions to use OTT platforms, by analyzing data collected from 371 existing users. Findings: The findings indicated that functional value quality and social value, representing the attribute-level values, were positively associated with two benefit-based values – functional value price and emotional value (EMV). Next, EMV was not only associated with intentions but also partially mediated the association of attribute-level values with intentions. Premium subscription purchased and increased viewing time were confirmed to have moderating effects on the association between attribute-level and benefit-based values. Originality/value: The study is amongst the foremost research initiatives to examine consumption values derived from OTT platform usage after the onset of the pandemic. Its novelty also comes from its identifying OTT platform-specific consumption values for the first time and adding a new dimension to the TCV by examining the interplay of these values in the OTT platform context. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Stock valuation during the COVID-19 pandemic: An explanation using option-based discount rates.

Changes in short-term expected market returns (discount rates) were a significant driver behind the unprecedented fluctuations in equity markets during the first 4 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using option-based estimates of the expected market risk premium for 13 international markets, we find that approximately 40% of the change in market values during the COVID-19 pandemic can be attributed to changes in short-term discount rates. We also document sharply downward sloping term structures of equity risk premia at the start of the pandemic, consistent with Hasler and Marfè (2016). Finally, we document a significant increase in the correlation between index returns and changes in the short-term discount rate during the pandemic compared to the period before the pandemic.

Can COVID-19 solve the equity premium puzzle?

We propose a new approach for estimating rare disaster event models where we only use U.S. national consumption data as an alternative to the ubiquitous Barro and Ursúa's (2008, 2012) multi-country data set. We find that the 2020 COVID crisis unambiguously reveals the presence and significance of rare disasters in consumption dynamics. Using our estimated parameters and recursive preferences, our approach is able to solve the risk-free rate and equity premium puzzles without resorting to multi-country data in estimating the model. Our analysis shows that the severity of disasters is vastly underestimated in the U.S. and that more than 400 years of consumption data would be necessary to get an accurate estimate.

Behavior of Russian Premium Fashion Consumers and Designers after the COVID-19 Pandemic and International Sanctions

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the emerging changes in Russian premium fashion brand consumers' behavior on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic and international economic sanctions, the impact on foreign fashion brands' decisions to leave the market, and the willingness of some Russian fashion designers to scale their businesses and occupy vacated market niches. This problem had arisen for the first time;the situation is unexpected and unique. Therefore, the researchers combined multiple methods of data collection: (1) Observation;(2) Netnography to identify emerging changes in Russian consumers' behavior, which increases the objectivity of the data obtained since personal contact was excluded;and (3) Expert in-depth interviews to assess the situation by Russian fashion designers. QDA and qualitative content analysis were used. Fashion designers in Russia percept the situation as an opportunity for business development, similar to the situation that occurred in Iran, but entrepreneurs understand the market risks and expect more serious measures of state support for business. The results may inform state policymakers and stakeholders about the stated changes in consumer behavior and the capabilities of Russian entrepreneurs to scale the business, which will help identify possible growth vectors for domestic fashion designers in the premium sector. © 2023 Russian Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Case study on the effect of T-AYU-HM Premium with modern medicine in severe Covid-19 Patient

Indian traditional system of medicine has a definite role in the treatment of Covid-19. This case report presents the outcome of Ayurvedic interventions along with modern medicines in a severe covid-19 infected patient with breathlessness. A patient with a history of cough, breathing difficulty and generalized weakness tested positive for the rapid antigen test and prescribed the standard treatment of care with 14 days of strict home quarantine. During follow-up, there was no clinical improvement and oxygen saturation was fluctuating and required oxygen support. Therefore, the patient sought ayurvedic intervention at the covid-19 healthcare center with supportive oxygen therapy. The patient was managed with ayurvedic intervention along with modern medicines. On the date of admission to the covid-19 care center, the patient's SpO2 72% on room air, HRCT 80-90%, and ESR, CRP, and LDH were 40(mm/hour), 11.47(mg/L), and 306(Units/L) respectively. By adhering to the integrated therapy patient's oxygen saturation and clinical profile were improved with time. On the 11th day of treatment patient, SpO2 was sustained at 95% and HRCT report was 70-80%, and clinical profile improved remarkably. The patient's HRCT after one month was50-60% compared to the previous report suggestive of remarkable improvement. The effect on inflammatory markers and oxygen saturation suggests that integration of modern medicines along with ayurvedic medicine in the patient was significant and deserves further studies. Integrating ayurvedic treatment along with modern medicine might be considered as an effective approach in the management of severe covid-19 patients. Copyright © RJPT All right reserved.

Macroeconomic Challenges for Life Insurance Market in the Baltic States

The development of life insurance sector in the Baltic States is influenced by various opportunities and threats from the macroeconomic environment. In this context, the aim of this paper is to identify some macroeconomic factors that influence various indicators describing the life insurance market in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania in the period 1993-2020 (direct premiums written, life insurance density, and life insurance penetration). The panel data approach suggests that economic growth, expenditure on tertiary education and income supports the development of the life insurance sector in these countries, while higher unemployment negatively affects the insurance market. These results have implications for the life insurance market forecasting in the new international context dominated by the Covid-19 pandemic. © 2022, University of National and World Economy. All rights reserved.

Forecasting global stock market volatilities in an uncertain world

We investigate the predictive relationship between uncertainty and global stock market volatilities from a highfrequency perspective. We show that uncertainty contains information beyond fundamentals (volatility) and strongly affects stock market volatility. Using several crucial uncertainty measures (i.e., uncertainty and implied volatility indices), we prove that the CBOE volatility index (VIX) performs best in point (density) forecasting;the financial stress index (FSI) in directional forecasting. Furthermore, VIX's predictive power improved dramatically after the COVID-19 outbreak, and the VIX-based portfolio strategy enables mean-variance investors to achieve higher returns. There are two empirical properties of VIX: (i) it helps reduce significantly forecast variance rather than bias;and (ii) its forecasts encompass other uncertainty forecasts well. Overall, we highlight the importance of considering uncertainty when exploring the expected stock market volatility.

Sentiment or habits: Why not both?

Habits and sentiment are important psychological behaviors in asset pricing. In this article I nest consumer sentiment as a risk factor into the Campbell-Cochrane (CC) habit model and examine its impact on asset prices. The model provides an economic mechanism for the pricing of sentiment risk through its impact on habit sensitivity and equilibrium habit levels but finds its market price of risk much lower than fundamentals. The additional sentiment factor does not improve the CC model, with both models returning a matched moments error of 12 % $12 \% $ from 1980Q1 to 2021Q4. The sentiment factor, however, subsumes risk aversion with a lower resulting risk coefficient than the CC model without sentiment. Furthermore, the model shows that during the COVID period, the risk premium was driven more by consumption growth than sentiment.

Changing Dimensions of Customers Behaviour for A Life Insurance Product Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 pandemic can be considered as an economic and health crisis of uncertain magnitude and duration. Frequent lockdowns, salary cuts, and losses of jobs and lives have spurred changes in human behaviour. Today customers are experiencing a transformation in their perceptions towards a life insurance product. The common attitude to treat life insurance as an optional investment instrument has been shifted towards a mandatory risk protection instrument. Thus the demand for a life insurance product is increasing by leaps and bounds and undoubtedly competition among insurance providers at the same time. This article seeks to examine the features that should form part of a life insurance product to attract customers in Indiaduring the COVID-19 pandemic. Data for the study were collected for 159 respondents from October 2020 to December 2020 from Delhi and NCR region. The data were analyzed using Principal Component Analysisafter walking through a maze of articles relating to normal times and crisis times. There is testable evidence to show a paradigm shift in the outlook of customers regarding a life insurance product. Thus, the article also paves the path for future research in the direction of customers behaviour for a life insurance product.