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During the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns were implemented to achieve two goals: (1) to reduce the number of COVID-19 cases and (2) to reduce the number of COVID-19 deaths. In this paper, the authors aim to look at empirical evidence on how effectively lockdowns achieved these goals among small island developing states (SIDS) and for one specific SIDS economy, Guam.

The authors reviewed existing studies to form two hypotheses: that lockdowns reduced cases, and that lockdowns reduced deaths. Defining a lockdown as a positive value for Oxford COVID-19 government response tracker, OxCGRT's stringency index, the authors tested the above hypotheses on 185 countries, 27 SIDS economies and Guam using correlation and regression analyses, and using different measures of the strictness, duration and timing of the lockdown.

The authors found no evidence to support the hypothesis that lockdowns reduced the number of cases based on data for all 185 countries and 27 SIDS economies. While the authors found evidence to support the hypothesis in the case of Guam, the result required an unrealistically and implausibly long time lag of 365 days. As to the second hypothesis that lockdowns reduced the number of deaths, the authors found no evidence to support it for 185 countries, 27 SIDS economies as well as Guam.

From the review of the existing literature, the authors are the first to conduct this type of study among SIDS economies as a group and on Guam.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of credibility and information quality (IQ) of online food vloggers on consumer attitude and purchase intention towards street food consumption. It also examines the relationship between consumer attitude and purchase intention influenced by online food vlogger reviews in North India.

In order to evaluate the framework, primary data were gathered from 389 street food consumers located in Jammu, Chandigarh and Delhi – cities situated in northern India. The collected data were then subjected to analysis using the partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) techniques.

The results indicate that the perceived value of street food, influenced by the credibility of food vloggers and the quality of information provided, has a positive impact on consumer attitude and purchase intention towards street food consumption. A positive impact of consumer attitude on the purchase and consumption of street food was also observed.

This research offers a thorough investigation into the elements that influence consumers' opinions regarding vloggers endorsements. The findings reveal that consumer's attitudes towards vloggers recommendations are mainly influenced by the quality of information provided, followed by credibility and the intention to make a purchase. Furthermore, this research is of significance to practitioners and academics interested in comprehending consumer behavior in the realms of tourism and food-related endeavors.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-02-2024-0158

This paper aims to provide a full introduction, new classification, comparison and investigation of the challenges as well as applications of layerless 3D printing, which is one of the industry 4.0 pioneers.

Given the significance and novelty of uniform 3D printing, more than 250 publications were collected and reviewed in an unbiased and clear manner.

As a result, the majority of uniform parts printed in polymer form are known up to this point. In a novel division for better researchers’ comprehension, uniform printing systems were classified into three categories: oxygen inhibition (OI), liquid lubrication (LL) and photon penetration (PP), and each was thoroughly investigated. Furthermore, these three approaches were evaluated in terms of printing speed, precision and accuracy, manufacturing scale and cost.

The parameters of each approach were compared independently, and then a practical comparison was conducted among these three approaches. Finally, a variety of technologies, opportunities, challenges and advantages of each significant method, as well as a future outlook for layerless rapid prototyping, are presented.

This paper aims to investigate the mechanisms through which social media news consumption across different platforms leads to opinion polarization in society. To this end, the authors draw from cultivation theory to examine whether social media news consumption imparts a mainstreaming or resonance effect. Media consumption imparts a mainstreaming effect if frequent users, regardless of their social identity, develop homogenous attitudes about issues, whereas resonance is at play if there is a differing cultivation effect on various social groups depending on their relatability of life experiences.

The authors conduct the study in the developing context of India, using a population survey dataset from 2019. Regression-based mediation and moderation analyses were carried out to test the hypotheses.

The findings reveal that resonance is the most prominent mechanism through which social media news consumption cultivates opinion polarization, contrary to the mainstreaming effect imparted by television. Further, WhatsApp use was found to strengthen the polarizing effect of overall social media news consumption, while YouTube use weakened the cultivation of polarization.

The paper unearths how social media news consumption influences the opinion polarization of various social groups differently. The authors also find the differential effect of specific platform use. These findings have the potential to inform policymakers and developers about how to mitigate the detrimental effects of platform-based political persuasion.

This study offers significant contributions. First, the authors explain social media-induced polarization using the novel theoretical lens of cultivation. Second, the authors find that social media and television news consumption differ in their polarizing effects. Third, the authors find that while WhatsApp use amplifies the polarizing effect of social media news consumption, YouTube use weakens it.

Defining and validating a map of related technologies is critical for managers, investors and inventors. Because of the increase in the applications of and demand for semiconductor lasers, analyzing the technological position of developers has become increasingly critical. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to adopt the technological position analysis to identify mainstream technologies and developments relevant to semiconductor lasers.

Correspondence analysis and k-means cluster analysis, which are data mining techniques, are used to reveal strategic groups of major competitors in the semiconductor laser market according to their Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) patent applications.

The results of this study reveal that PCT patent applications are generally obtained for masers, optical elements, semiconductor devices and methods for measuring and that technology developers have varying technological positions.

Through position analysis, this study identifies the technological focuses of different manufacturers to obtain information that can guide the allocation of research and development resources.

In the digital age, the spread of online behavior and real-world information leads to social contagion. This study aims to investigate the contagion phenomenon of online physician choice and then discuss its potential influence on the sub-specialization process in the healthcare service industry. In specific, this study aims to propose the basic mechanism of infection and immunity as follows – exposure to antigen may lead to an immune response, and the success of the immune response may depend on the provision of appropriate immune signaling.

Data collected from haodf.com including 4 disease types and 247 physicians from 2008 to 2015 were used to test the proposed hypotheses. Panel vector autoregression method was utilized to analyze the panel data.

The obtained result shows that social contagion of physician choice over disease type is salient on e-consultation platforms, indicating that physicians associated with/on haodf.com are concentrating on an even narrower type of disease. Disclosing more simple signals (physician history orders) results in more disease concentration for that physician in the future. In contrast, disclosing more detailed signals (physician-contributed knowledge or physician reviews) leads to less disease concentration.

This finding implies that physician-contributed knowledge and physician reviews may act as immune signal which will tend to trigger a success immune response. This study not only suggests managers should be careful about the double-edged sword effect of online physician choice contagion but also provides the useful approaches to promote or restrain such a contagion in a flexible way.

This study investigates the direct impact of app attachment on service recovery and customer advocacy and their combined impact on recommendation and purchase intention. The mediating mechanisms of service recovery and customer advocacy between app attachment and customer responses are also tested in the context of food delivery apps (FDAs).

Utilizing a quantitative approach, the authors surveyed 207 responses from users of FDAs who had experienced service failures. Structural equation modeling in Smart PLS 3.0 was used to analyze the data.

The results supported direct effects among all constructs in the model. The main contribution of the study confirms the mediating mechanisms of service recovery and customer advocacy between app attachment and customer responses.

Previous studies have mostly relied on the technology acceptance model (TAM). This theory posits that perceived usefulness and ease of use influence the decision of individuals to use a new technology. Although this theory is valuable in terms of accepting new technologies, it neglects psychological phenomena involving the individual and the technological entity – in this case, the FDA. Thus, our study is unique in applying attachment theory and putting emphasis on the importance of building trust in the relationship between FDAs and their customers. Social exchange theory is applied to explain the importance of overcoming the cost of experiencing a failure through service recovery. Thus, we extend the knowledge regarding psychological individual reactions to mobile technologies in the food context, an important sector within the hospitality market.

FDA managers should invest in developing emotional ties with customers. Specific actions include messaging customers on their birthdays or other festive dates. Short testimonial videos on TikTok or other social media with customers advocating in favor of the company could help spread recommendations and the intentions of other customers using the FDAs. To use these practical recommendations properly, we recommend that FDA managers consider the level of quality service recovery delivered and individuals’ cultures, beliefs and values regarding where the company operates to avoid misunderstandings.

This study is original in proposing a model to FDA operators considering app attachment, service recovery, customer advocacy, recommendation and purchase intention. It further supports the mediating effect of service recovery and customer advocacy between app attachment, recommendation and purchase intention on mobile phones.