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The study provides an initial empirical examination of Jin et al.’s (2024) new READINESS model through the expert opinions of crisis communication academics and practitioners. Through this examination, the goal is to understand crisis READINESS and how it relates to other key concepts in the crisis literature, such as preparedness and resilience.

An exploratory quantitative online survey of 30 experts in crisis communication was conducted. Our participant pool consisted of members from the Crisis Communication Think Tank, which is an established crisis thought leadership network (Jin, 2023). Data collection took place in November and December 2023.

Key findings include the dual nature of crisis READINESS as both a process and an outcome, resilience as both a process and an outcome, and preparedness as an antecedent to READINESS. A key distinction between READINESS and preparedness emerged with the former conceived of as a mindset and the latter conceived of as physical tools, training and planning.

Preparedness and resilience alone are not enough to effectively manage crises and risks, and given this, it is important to study READINESS as a concept beyond (yet connected to) preparedness and resilience. It is our hope that the findings can lead to understanding indicators of crisis READINESS and developing crisis READINESS measurement tools which can equip organizations to more effectively manage crises.

This study aims to examine the influence of training and development (TAD), including performance appraisal (PFA), on the performance of microfinance institutions in a developing economy.

A random sampling drew 100 microfinance institutions in Ghana's Greater Accra Region. Then, a purposive sampling approach selected a cross-section of employees in these institutions. Finally, the data were collected from a sample of 367 respondents, such as managers, utilizing a survey questionnaire. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test hypothesized relationships.

The study results indicate that PFA has a statistically significant positive relationship with organizational performance, and this relationship is partially mediated by job satisfaction (JBS). Interestingly, the TAD process does not have a statistically significant positive relationship with organizational performance when JBS is present in the model. In fact, JBS fully mediates the relationship between TAD and organizational performance.

The study is limited to microfinance in tiers two and three in Greater Accra city of Ghana and did not include the entire country. Although the city of Accra provides a generalized representation of the research, which can be replicated, some variables and results may be impacted if other tiers of microfinance organizations are incorporated.

TAD, as well as PFA, enhance the performance of microfinance and can be utilized as tools for competitive advantage in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (e.g. microfinance institutions). The study accentuates the value of TAD, PFA and JBS in microfinance in a developing country like Ghana.

This is an original study investigating the effect of TAD and PFA practices on the performance of SMEs in a developing country like Ghana. Also, the study analyses JBS as a mediation variable to performance using SEM, which advances the research methodology in this research field.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors influencing user adoption behavior in the context of conflicting health information, thereby contributing to the understanding of users' information decision-making and adoption processes within intricate information environments. Furthermore, this research endeavors to offer guidance for mitigating the adverse effects of contradictory health information on users' cognitive perceptions.

First, this study used literature coding to identify factors that influence user adoption behavior in the context of conflicting health information. Secondly, we utilized the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method to unveil the key influencing factors based on centrality and causality. Lastly, utilizing the Interpretive Structural Model (ISM), we constructed the multilevel hierarchical structure model of influencing factors to delineate the relationships among factors across different levels.

The key causal factors influencing user adoption behavior in the context of conflicting health information include user basic characteristics, experience accumulation, and information type. The key result factors consist of psychological emotion, perceived trade-offs, and the source credibility. The significant elements include users' psychological emotions, perceived trade-offs, emotional support, source credibility, and informational support. Furthermore, user adoption behavior in the context of conflicting health information is a manifestation of the interplay among surface-level, mid-level, and deep-level factors.

Theoretically, this paper enriches the existing relevant theoretical framework and offers a novel perspective for further investigation into user adoption behavior concerning conflicting health information. Practically, this study extracts factors that can influence user adoption behavior in the context of conflicting health information which is an essential reference value for guiding and optimizing user adoption behavior.

This paper expands the system of factors influencing user adoption behavior in the context of conflicting health information from individual, information and social perspectives. Utilizing DEMATEL quantitative analysis and ISM multilevel hierarchical models, this research examines and illustrates the significance of the influencing factors and their interrelationships.

As a sticky crisis challenge, toxic polarization continues to mutate and confront organizations and democratic society. How corporations engage stakeholders in social-political issue communication without exacerbating the situation unexpectedly, has become a critical question for corporate communicators and crisis managers. Taking a readiness approach to proactively manage polarization-triggered threats as corporations are engaged in social-political issue communication on social media, this study examines whether and how corporations might contribute to alleviating socio-political issue polarization and facilitating stakeholder issue engagement.

The study is a 3 (corporate political engagement approach: pro-issue stance vs anti-issue stance vs political CSR) × 2 (stakeholder comment valence: positive vs negative) × 2 (issue: gun control vs refugee immigration) mixed-design online experiment conducted among 1,589 US adults.

Our findings reveal both challenges and opportunities should a corporation choose to explicitly communicate its issue stance with stakeholders on social media: On one hand, it unavoidably increased stakeholders’ perceived issue polarization; on the other, the increased issue polarization perception seemed to motivate stakeholders to engage more in social-political discussion led by the corporation.

Our findings showcased what type of corporate engagement in controversial social-political issues is more expected in terms of its impact on perceived polarization or political discussion among stakeholders, contributing theoretically and practically to organizational readiness for social-political issue polarization challenges.

This study explores virtual platforms’ capabilities, particularly emphasising the influence of educational movies embedded with lifelike narratives to serve as a potent medium for immersive learning within the auditing discipline. Through this exploration, we aim to discern how cinematic depictions can educate and encapsulate the intricate dynamics of real-world auditing scenarios, thereby enriching the educational experience for budding auditors.

By employing an action research methodology, this study engaged 134 auditing students from China in an experiment, using a questionnaire to assess their grasp of auditing concepts like internal control, corporate governance, and professional ethics.

Preliminary findings underscore the efficacy of movies as pedagogical tools. These movie experiences bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and its real-world application, particularly highlighting the nuances of professional ethics and corporate governance. Results show that such a method amplifies students’ comprehension of auditor skillsets, practical complications, and ethical insight and nurtures professional scepticism about tangible audit issues.

This study illuminates a novel virtual learning approach using movies that primes students to exercise critical thinking and augments cognitive skillsets, especially when navigating ethical conundrums. The broader implication is the potential enhancement of auditing education quality in China, presenting educators with an innovative teaching modality that bolsters students’ critical analysis and cognitive development.

This study has multiple implications for auditing education policy. It underscores the imperative need for curriculum revision in contemporary auditing education. Our study can significantly change contemporary auditing education by incorporating movie-based experiential learning. Educators and institutions in China and other parts of the world explore this avenue, customising it to fit the unique requirements of their respective courses and the country’s contexts. Our study also highlights the challenges and recommendations for real-world audit simulation for auditing education. While our research highlights the promise of educational movies, it also sheds light on the potential difficulties in their integration. Audit educators need adequate support and training for effective assimilation, ensuring they leverage educational movies to maximise learning outcomes. Careful curation and selection of movies, combined with strategic planning, are paramount to this teaching method’s success. With the continual evolution of video tools, there is an opportunity for a more immersive and holistic education model, shaping the next generation of auditors.

This study offers insights into innovative strategies to imbue real-world experience into traditional curricula, ensuring relevance and applicability across diverse educational landscapes.

Middle-aged and elderly users become an important group on short-video platforms, however, the research on determinants of their video-creating intention is limited. Based on lifespan development theories, this study examines the impact of aging experiences on their video-creating intention, considering internal generative motivations as mediators and age as a moderator.

To test this study’s hypotheses, survey data from 321 Chinese middle-aged and elderly short-video users were collected and partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) approach was used to analyze these data.

Middle-aged and elderly users' aging experiences of social loss and personal growth are positively related to their video-creating intention. Aging experiences (i.e. physical loss, social loss, and personal growth) are positively related to internal generative motivations (i.e. need to be needed and symbolic immortality), and need to be needed is positively related to video-creating intention. Via the mediation of need to be needed, physical loss and personal growth are indirectly positively related to video-creating intention. Personal growth strengthens the relationship between physical loss and symbolic immortality, but weakens the associations of social loss with need to be needed and symbolic immortality. Age weakens the relationship between symbolic immortality and video-creating intention.

This study is the first wave to introduce and integrate lifespan theories such as selective optimization with compensation model, socioemotional selectivity theory, and generativity theory to explore the impacts of aging experiences on middle-aged and elderly users' video-creating intention by considering generativity motivations as mediators and age as a moderator.

Drawing on information foraging theory and the SERVQUAL model, this study built a research model to investigate the roles of middle-aged and elderly short-video creators' online attributes in attracting short-video viewers to be their followers.

Taking Douyin (a famous short-video platform in China) as an example, this study used a sequential triangulation mixed-methods approach (quantitative → qualitative) to examine the proposed model by investigating both creators and viewers.

Viewers who clicked the “like” button for the middle-aged and elderly creators' videos are more likely to follow the creators. Viewers will believe that middle-aged and elderly creators who received more likes are more popular. Thus, middle-aged and elderly creators with more likes usually have more followers. Viewers usually believe that middle-aged and elderly creators who more frequently publish professional and high-quality videos have invested more effort and who have official verification also have a high level of authority and are recognized by the platform. Thus, middle-aged and elderly creators with more professional videos and verification usually have more followers. Moreover, verification, the number of videos and the professionalism of videos can enhance the transformation of viewers who liked middle-aged and elderly creators' videos into their followers, and thus strengthen the positive relationship between the number of likes and the number of followers; however, the number of bio words will have an opposite effect.

These findings have implications for platform managers, middle-aged and elderly creators and the brands aiming to develop a “silver economy” by attracting more followers.

This study researches short-video platforms by using a mixed-methods approach to develop an understanding of viewers' decision-making when following middle-aged and elderly creators based on information foraging theory and the SERVQUAL model from the perspectives of both short-video creators and viewers.

Given the popularity of online health communities (OHCs) and medical question-and-answer (Q&A) services, it is increasingly important to understand what constitutes useful answers and user-adopted standards in healthcare domain. However, few studies provide insights into how health information characteristics, provider characteristics and recipient characteristics jointly influence user information adoption decisions. To fill this research gap, this study examines the combined effects of physicians' certainty tone as information characteristics, seniority as provider characteristics and disease severity as recipient characteristics on patients' health information adoption.

Drawing on dual-process theory and information adoption model, an extended information adoption model is established in this study to examine the effect of attitude certainty on patients' health information adoption, and the moderating effects of online seniority and offline seniority, as well as patient motivation level—disease severity. Utilizing logit regression models, the authors empirically tested the hypotheses based on 4,224 Q&A records from a popular Chinese OHC.

The results show that (1) attitude certainty has a significant positive impact on patients' health information adoption, (2) the relationship between attitude certainty and information adoption is negatively moderated by physicians' online seniority, but is positively moderated by offline seniority; (3) there is a negative three-way interaction effect of attitude certainty, online seniority and disease severity on patients' health information adoption.

This study extends the information adoption model to examine the two-way interaction between argument quality and source reliability, as well as the three-way interaction with user motivation level, especially for health information adoption in the healthcare field. These findings also provide direct practical applications for knowledge contributors and OHCs.

This concluding chapter provides key takeaways from the insights and recommendations that emerged from the EUPRERA2022 volume with a focus on crises and issues. Reflections are made with an emphasis on the understanding of sticky crisis, the embodiment of challenging, complex and recurring critical risks that threaten organisational well-being and stakeholder safety across sectors and cultures. A call for more interdisciplinary and international collaborations between academia and industry is made. Future directions of crisis, risk and disaster communication research that matter to practice are discussed.

The success of online health communities (OHCs) depends on maintaining long-term relationships with physicians and preventing churn. Even so, the reasons for physician churn are poorly understood. In this study, an empirical model was proposed from a social influence perspective to explore the effects of online social influence and offline social influence on physician churn, as well as the moderating effect of their online returns.

The empirical data of 4,145 physicians from a Chinese OHC, and probit regression models were employed to verify the proposed theoretical model.

The results suggest that physicians' churn intention is influenced by online and offline social influences, and the offline social influence is more powerful. Physicians' reputational and economic returns could weaken the effect of online social influence on churn intention. However, physicians' economic returns could strengthen the effect of offline social influence on churn intention.

This research study is the first attempt to explore physician churn and divides the social influence into online and offline social influences according to the source of social relationship. The findings contribute to the literature on e-Health, user churn and social influence and provide management implications for OHC managers.