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The objectives of the study are threefold. The primary objective is to examine the impact of environmental disclosures (ED) on financial distress (FD) situation of the companies. The second objective is to investigate the impact of internal (corporate governance score) and external governance (national governance index) structure on FD. And third is to examine the ED–FD nexus with the interaction of both governance structures.

Using eight years of panel data for the 254 non-financial companies, and applying two-way fixed effects models, we arrive at our statistical estimates.

The results indicate that an increase in ED scores reduces FD. While corporate governance is insignificant to FD, national governance is effective in reducing FD. Interestingly, corporate governance negatively moderates the linkages between ED and FD, while national governance does not exhibit any such interaction effects.

We contribute to the existing literature by being the pioneer study to test the relationship between ED and FD for a sample of Indian companies and that too, with the moderation of internal and external governance structures.

Short-form video advertisements have recently gained popularity and are widely used. However, creating attractive short video advertisements remains a challenge for sellers. Based on the visual-audio perspective and signaling theory, this study investigated the impacts of three visual features (number of shots, pixel-level image complexity and vertical versus horizontal formats) and two audio features (speech rate and average spectral centroid) on user engagement behavior.

We conducted a field study on TikTok. To test our various hypotheses, we used regression analysis on 2,511 videos containing product promotion information posted by 60 sellers between January 1, 2020 and November 20, 2021.

For visual variables, the number of shots and pixel-level image complexity were found to have nonlinear (inverted U-shaped) relationships with user engagement behavior. The vertical video form was found to have a positive effect on comments and shares. In the case of audio variables, speech rate was found to have a significant positive effect on shares but not on likes and comments. The average spectral centroid was found to have significant negative influences on likes and comments.

This study provides specific suggestions for sellers who create short-form videos to improve user engagement behavior.

This study contributes to the literature on short-form video advertising by extending the potential drivers of user engagement behavior. Additionally, from a methodological perspective, it contributes to the literature by using computer vision and speech-processing techniques to analyze user behavior in a video-related context, effectively overcoming the limitations of the widely adopted survey method.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of multidimensional perceived value and perceived pressure on physicians’ continuous intention to use (CIU) online health communities (OHCs) based on perceived value (PV) theory and conservation of resources (COR) theory.

This study developed a research model to test the proposed hypotheses, and the proposed model was tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) for which data were collected from 481 physicians with OHC experience using an online survey.

The empirical results show the following: (1) Physicians’ CIU is influenced by perceived value and perceived pressure, with attitude towards OHCs using (ATU) playing a crucial role in the pathways. (2) Additional value, work pressure, peer pressure and social pressure have a positive impact on CIU, with consultation value, relationship value, work pressure and peer pressure positively influencing CIU through ATU as a mediator. (3) Reputation value has a positive effect on CIU moderated by seniority (online seniority and offline seniority).

This study emphasises the importance of different dimensions of perceived value and perceived pressure in CIU. Meanwhile, we broaden the research scope of PV theory and COR theory and provide inspiration to OHC managers and healthcare institution managers.

This study aims to investigate the impact of physician efforts in online reviews on outpatient appointments, while also examining the moderating effect of physician title.

This study employs the heuristic-systematic model (HSM) to analyze the impact of physician efforts on outpatient appointments. Subsequently, a fixed effect model is employed to examine the research model using an 89-week panel dataset (from April 16, 2018 to December 29, 2019) comprising appointment and online review information pertaining to 8,157 physicians from a prominent online health community in China.

The findings suggest that physicians with lower professional titles exhibit a significantly higher inclination to enhance heuristic information (e.g. attracting helpful votes) compared to those with higher professional title. All physicians can enhance their outpatient appointments by dedicating efforts towards improving systematic review information, but physician title would weaken the relationship. Moreover, the effect of increasing review volume is considerably more substantial than that of increasing review length, which also surpasses the influence of providing managerial response.

Unlike previous studies that primarily focus on patients’ perspectives, this paper represents one of the pioneering effects to examine physicians’ engagement in online reviews.

This study holistically and systematically consolidates the available research on digital reading to reveal the research trends of the past 20 years. Moreover, it explores the thematic evolution, hotspots and developmental characteristics of digital reading. This study, therefore, has the potential to serve as a research guide to researchers and educators in relevant fields.

The authors applied a bibliometric approach using Derwent Data Analyzer and VOSviewer to retrieve 2,456 publications for 2003–2022 from the Web of Science (WoS) database.

The results revealed that most studies' participants were university students and the experimental methods and questionnaires were preferred in digital reading researches. Among the influential countries or regions, institutions, journals and authors, the United States of America, University of London, Electronic Library and Chen, respectively, accounted for the greatest number of publications. Moreover, the authors identified the developmental characteristics and research trends in the field of digital reading by analyzing the evolution of keywords from 2003–2017 to 2018–2022 and the most frequently cited papers by year. “E-books,” “reading comprehension” and “literacy” were the primary research topics. In addition, “attention,” “motivation,” “cognitive load,” “dyslexia,” “engagement,” “eye-tracking,” “eye movement,” “systematic analysis,” “meta-analysis,” “smartphone” and “mobile reading/learning” were potential new research hotspots.

This study provides valuable insights into the current status, research direction, thematic evolution and developmental characteristics in the field of digital reading. Therefore, it has implications for publishers, researchers, librarians, educators and teachers in the digital reading field.

The banking sector is one of the main drivers of any developed economy and the decisions of individual banks can have global consequences on markets. In recent decades, the European banking sector has undergone major transformations, including restructuring, mergers and changes in regulation and supervision. This has attracted the interest of academics and policymakers alike. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the efficiency in the European banking sector, but there is no consensus in the literature on which factors of banks affect their efficiency.

This study analyzes data from the consolidated financial statements of a sample of 471 banks over the period 2005–2022 from 39 countries. Two methodologies are applied: data envelopment analysis methodology for the calculation of efficiency, both input- and output-oriented, and Tobit regression model to determine which variables significantly affect banks’ efficiency scores.

The results show that the efficiency scores are similar in the input-oriented and output-oriented model. The Tobit model shows that the variables that positively affect efficiency are the ROA, size, capital ratio and liquidity. On the other hand, the variables that decrease the extent of efficiency are the provisions ratio and the fact of being a financial entity under the Single Supervisory Mechanism.

The main contribution of this study is a more comprehensive and global approach that includes aspects of the most important insights from the previous literature, over a very extended period and including bank and macroeconomic environment characteristics.

This study aims to understand the lapse behavior of life insurance policyholders. Despite being accessible for nearly two centuries, only a small fraction of individuals purchase such policies and many of those who do let them lapse. The belief hypothesis model (BHM) is introduced to elucidate the correlation between policyholders' beliefs and their decisions regarding life insurance lapses.

BHM establishes a comprehensive linkage between core beliefs, external data and the lapse behavior exhibited by policyholders. To derive policyholders’ core beliefs about life insurance lapses, the authors conducted a semistructured, in-depth interview with 42 policyholders and 11 insurance advisors, using a grounded theory approach with zero-order, first-order and second-order coding.

The study's findings reveal that policy lapsation is influenced by various factors such as policyholders' beliefs about life insurance, process-related attitudes, trust in insurers and advisors and personal financial viewpoints. Policyholders who consider life insurance unnecessary or misunderstand its purpose are likelier to lapse their policies. Cumbersome documentation processes and technical issues also contribute to policy lapsation, emphasizing the significance of simplified procedures. Trust in insurers and advisors, personal financial literacy and payment preferences influence policy lapsation.

The findings of this research can be practically applied by companies to improve customer retention and by regulatory bodies to encourage policyholders to honor their insurance commitments.

Distinguishing itself from conventional hypotheses-driven and factor-centric models, BHM integrates consumer beliefs, thus enriching comprehension and decision-making insights.

This study aims to inspect the impact of US climate policy uncertainty (CPU) on the economic growth of Asian countries with the moderating role of crude oil price (COP) changes.

The Im-Pesaran Sin and Fisher-type tests are used for stationarity check, while Kao and Pedroni tests are used for cointegration analysis. The Hausman test is applied for model selection, where pooled mean group autoregressive distributed lag (PMG/ARDL) has been selected and applied. Besides, the fully modified ordinary least squares is also used for robustness analysis. Additionally, the literature review and descriptive statistics have been used.

The main findings disclosed that US CPU negatively impacted the economic growth of Asian economies with high significance in the long run whereas insignificant in the short run. The results further concluded that COP positively affected economic growth both in the short and long run. Furthermore, the results also revealed that COP significantly and positively moderates the relationship between CPU and COP in the long and short run.

The study is the first of its kind to examine the impact of the US CPU on the economic growth of Asian economies. Second, it further revealed the moderating role of COP between US CPU and economic growth. Third, a large panel of data from Asian countries has been considered. Fourth, the study adds to the current literature by using the PMG/ARDL model to determine the impact of US CPU on economic growth. Additionally, this study focuses on the US CPU because it is a developed country playing a significant role in energy and climate issues, and has been very uncertain.

This study aims to examine the investor's level of financial literacy and their attitude toward making any investment decision in the Bangladeshi capital market.

To measure the level of financial literacy of an individual investor, three variables have been used – financial knowledge, financial behavior and financial attitude. It also considers investment opportunity as a moderator variable to assess the effect of market-specific characteristics on financial literacy. Data have been collected through a structured questionnaire from 152 retail investors of the Dhaka Stock Exchange and Chittagong Stock Exchange. Smart-PLS 3.3 was used for analyzing the set of hypotheses for examining the relationships in the study.

Results found that financial attitude and financial behavior have a positive and significant relationship with investment decisions. Further evidence shows that investment opportunity moderates the relationship between financial attitude and financial behavior. This indicates that equity investors are suffering from market inefficiency and cannot ensure wealth maximization.

Regulators should focus not only on financial literacy programs but also on market discipline, accountability and performance. This will encourage investors to invest their money wisely and independently.

The study adds value to the capital market literature in two ways. First, it investigates the success of financial literacy programs in Bangladesh to resolve the behavioral bias issue among investors, which used to affect their returns negatively. Second, the study introduces a very new and relevant variable as a moderator in the context of Bangladesh. Investment opportunity is a moderating variable developed from the efficient market hypothesis. Results reveal that investors are somehow financially literate over time, which can be a positive attribute for controlling behavioral bias. However, market inefficiency, corporate corruption, financial crime, insider trading and information asymmetry hamper the regular growth of the market. Hence, equity investors are unable to ensure wealth maximization in Bangladesh, where this kind of problem exists.

Based on the advice response theory perspective, this study aims to investigate the effects of human managers and artificial intelligence (AI) systems on customer-contact employees’ aversion to AI systems in the hospitality industry. It examined the mediating role of advice content characteristics (efficacy, feasibility and implementation limitations) and advice delivery (facework and comprehensibility) on customer-contact employees’ aversion to AI systems.

Two scenario-based experiments were conducted (Nexperiment 1 = 499 and Nexperiment 2 = 300). Experiment 1 compared the effects of different advisor types (human managers vs AI systems) on employees’ aversion to AI systems. Experiment 2 investigated the mediating role of advice content characteristics (efficacy, feasibility and implementation limitations) and advice delivery (facework and comprehensibility).

The results showed employees tended to prioritize advice from human managers over output from AI systems. Moreover, advice content characteristics (efficacy, feasibility and implementation limitations) and advice delivery (facework and comprehensibility) played mediating roles in the relationship between advisor type characteristics and employees’ aversion to AI systems.

These findings contribute to the understanding of AI system aversion and provide theoretical insights into management practices involving customer-contact employees who interact with AI technology in the hospitality industry.

The primary contribution of this study is that it enriches the literature on employee aversion to AI systems by exploring the dual mediators (advice content characteristics and advice delivery) through which advisor type characteristics affect AI system aversion.