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The purpose of this article is to meet Professor Paul T.P. Wong, PhD, CPscyh, who is based at the Department of Psychology, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. Wong represents an interesting case of how a racial/cultural minority could achieve success in a hostile environment consisting of the systemic biases of injustice, discrimination and marginalization. His life also epitomizes how one can experience the paradoxical truth of healing and flourishing in an upside-down world through the positive suffering mindset (PSM).

This case study is presented in two sections: a positive autoethnography written by Wong, followed by his answers to ten questions. The core methodology of positive autoethnography allows people to understand how Wong’s life experience of being a war baby in China, a constant outsider and a lone voice in Western culture, has shaped a very different vision of meaning, positive mental health and global flourishing.

Wong reveals how to live a life of meaning and happiness for all the suffering people in a difficult world. He has researched the positive psychology of suffering for 60 years, from effective coping with stress and searching for meaning to successful aging and positive death. According to Wong’s suffering hypothesis and the emerging paradigm of existential positive psychology (Wong, 2021), cultivating a PSM is essential for healing and flourishing in all seasons of life.

An expanding literature has been developed to illustrate why the missing link in well-being research is how to transcend and transform suffering into triumph. Wong reveals how this emerging area of research is still not fully embraced by mainstream psychology dominated by the individualistic Euro-American culture, and thus why, in an adversarial milieu, existential positive psychology is limited by its inability to attract more researchers to test out Wong’s suffering hypothesis.

The wisdom and helpful tools presented here may enable people to achieve mature happiness and existential well-being even when they have a very painful past, a very difficult present and a bleak future.

This autoethnographic case study offers new grounds for hope for all those who are injured by life, marginalized by systemic biases or tormented by chronic illnesses and disorders. It also provides a road map for a better world with more decent human beings who dare to stand up for justice, integrity and compassion.

Meaning as reflected in suffering is according to Wong the most powerful force to bring out either the worst or the best in people. The new science of suffering shows us how the authors can achieve positive transformation through cultivating a PSM, no matter how harsh one’s fate may be.

Drawn from the push–pull perspective, this research aims to identify the determinants of Chinese technology's outward foreign direct investments (OFDI) into the Eurasian region.

The authors argue that contrary to the extant literature, technology-driven OFDI from emerging-market multinationals (EMNEs) do not always seek developed countries, and EMNEs' technology investments in emerging economies are rising indicating that there are factors in these economies that can prove attractive. The authors recognize the influence of the macroeconomic environment and the interaction of home and host-country institutional contexts that influence the location choice of EMNEs technology-driven OFDI into other emerging economies, mediated by the industry sector and firm's ownership structure. The authors test our hypotheses using a sample of 1,656 observations of Chinese MNEs' tech-investments in the Eurasian region from 2005 to 2019.

The study results indicate that bilateral diplomatic relations pave the way of the host-country institutional environment for Chinese MNEs uncovering the role of the Chinese government as an OFDI facilitator. This study also unveils a lower technology level of the Chinese MNEs' investments in the Eurasian region connoting an interest in market opportunities exploitation through their existing technologies – through its comparative advantage in the global markets – rather than strategic assets acquisition aiming at augmenting their technological capabilities. This trend is similar to that of other major foreign direct investment (FDI) source countries.

This research contributes to a better understanding of the characteristics and the location choice of technology investments from EMNEs into other emerging economies that have received scant attention in the literature. In addition, it extends the institutional theory by analyzing how home-country institutions, through bilateral diplomatic relations, may smooth the host country institutional environment for home-country MNEs' foreign investments and contributes as well to the debate on the applicability of the existing theoretical framework in the case of emerging-market MNEs.

Sustainable fashion encompasses principles of ethical production, fair trade, and the use of organic materials. This study explores the antecedents influencing behavioural intentions to purchase sustainable fashion among Brazilian fashion consumers, utilising the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) as a framework and examining the role of Eco-shame.

A survey involving 378 respondents was conducted, and structural equation modelling was applied to analyse the data.

The study revealed that Perceived Behavioural Control, Attitude, and Eco-shame significantly influenced Behavioural Purchase Intention toward sustainable fashion products. In contrast to prior research, Subjective Norms did not demonstrate a substantial influence on Behavioural Purchase Intentions.

Enhancing the generalizability of findings necessitates expanding the sample size and employing a probability sampling method for future research endeavours.

In the realm of sustainable fashion consumption, it is imperative to understand consumer behaviour shifts, particularly amid the prevalence of fast fashion. This research aims to bridge this knowledge gap and underscore consumers’ motivations for selecting sustainable fashion products.

This study makes a theoretical contribution by introducing Eco-shame as an extension of the Theory of Planned Behaviour to evaluate Behavioural Purchase Intentions toward Sustainable Fashion Products, an innovation that has been absent from prior literature.

The rapidly growing medical tourism sector impacts sending and receiving countries’ health systems. It is growing rapidly, and medical procedures, technology and high-quality healthcare are expensive and unequal. Low-to-middle-income countries’ citizens travel abroad for better healthcare for cost or other reasons. Medical tourism in developing countries is poorly understood, despite empirical studies from developed countries and various disciplines. This paper aims to analyze the motivational factors that influence Nepalese patients’ decisions to seek outbound medical tourism in Nepal.

The study adopted a quantitative approach. The study purposefully included individual patients who had undergone medical treatment abroad to form the sample for research purposes. Among the 400 respondents, 382 responses were deemed the final sample size. A questionnaire was developed on a seven-point Likert scale. The study proceeded with a sequential analysis approach, commencing with the evaluation of the measurement model before conducting path analysis to test the hypotheses and present the model estimates.

The study found that the individuals supported outbound medical tourism and were open to medical treatment abroad. Outbound medical tourism is highly related to service quality and word-of-mouth communication along with the insurance policy, language and culture, treatment cost and procedural safety. However, service quality and word-of-mouth communication significantly affect outbound medical tourism, with service quality having a large effect. These findings of the study shed a different dynamics of the factors influencing Nepalese individuals’ decision regarding outbound medical tourism.

This study focuses to a developing country in which the country’s healthcare system lacks proper infrastructure and services, is overcrowded, lacks expertise and technology and private hospitals are scarce. As a result, more people are seeking treatment across borders. Though researchers from developed countries and different disciplines have carried out empirical studies on medical tourism, little is known about this phenomenon in developing countries. Therefore, this study explores the motivational factors for outbound medical tourism in Nepal. This study addresses these key research issues to highlight Nepal’s underexplored outbound medical tourism and its drivers.

This study analyzes the performance implications of adopting blockchain to support supply chain business processes. The technology holds as many promises as implementation challenges, so interest in its impact on operational performance has grown steadily over the last few years.

Drawing on transaction cost economics and the contingency theory, we built a set of hypotheses. These were tested through a long-term event study and an ordinary least squares regression involving 130 adopters listed in North America.

Compared with the control sample, adopters displayed significant abnormal performance in terms of labor productivity, operating cycle and profitability, whereas sales appeared unaffected. Firms in regulated settings and closer to the end customer showed more positive effects. Neither industry-level competition nor the early involvement of a project partner emerged as relevant contextual factors.

This research presents the first extensive analysis of operational performance based on objective measures. In contrast to previous studies and theoretical predictions, the results indicate that blockchain adoption is not associated with sales improvement. This can be explained considering that secure data storage and sharing do not guarantee the factual credibility of recorded data, which needs to be proved to customers in alternative ways. Conversely, improvements in other operational performance dimensions confirm that blockchain can support inter-organizational transactions more efficiently. The results are relevant in times when, following hype, there are signs of disengagement with the technology.

Using Hong Kong as the context of study, this paper examines the role of education policy, particularly professional standards for teachers (PST) and principals (PSP), in enabling leadership for action on contemporary challenges and crises such as climate change.

This paper utilises critical policy analysis (CPA) and an associated analytical framework to examine key policy texts that are designed with the intent to frame the professional roles, practice and learning of educators and leaders in Hong Kong. The data analysis process involved rounds of descriptive coding, which was then collated into broader themes for discussion.

Policy texts emphasised the scope for educators to exercise leadership and decision-making that supports innovation, improvement and collaboration in the pursuit of a broad social mission for education, emphasising the skills students do and will need to respond to dynamic contemporary challenges. However, how this relates to broader policy goals, and limited articulation of the means through which this is possible, questions remain about the extent to which teachers and leaders are able to exercise leadership for action on climate change.

This study has important implications for how those in policymaking, research and practice spaces understand the framing of the role of teachers and school leaders in policy and the influence of this on their capacity to lead action on contemporary challenges and crises, such as climate change.

This study investigates the determinants of eco-buying behavior by incorporating individual attributes such as personality traits and personal values and the theory of planned behavior (TPB). It also explores status consumption’s potential role in motivating eco-fashion purchases.

Conducted through an online survey with 436 respondents in the UK, the study utilizes structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze the data.

The study contributes to the eco-friendly consumer behavior literature in fashion, revealing that social influence, need for uniqueness, public self-consciousness, green consumption values and prosocial attitudes significantly influence both eco-behavior and status consumption. Interestingly, while no substantial impact of status consumption on eco-behavior was observed overall, a multi-group analysis unveils distinctive perceptions and intentions. A clustering analysis identifies two significant segments (status buyers and eco-savvy fashionistas) exhibiting markedly different relationships between variables necessitating tailored marketing approaches concerning eco-fashion buying.

Theoretically, the study highlights the limitations of the TPB in capturing evolving consumer dynamics, calling for refined models that incorporate personal values and specific motivations to better understand sustainable consumption.

For “Status Buyers,” marketers should focus on their desire for uniqueness and present eco-fashion as a status symbol using social proof and influencer marketing. For “Eco-Savvy Fashionistas,” strategies should highlight environmental benefits, provide educational resources and offer tools to track environmental impact.

This study deepens our understanding of eco-friendly fashion purchases by accounting for the diverse perceptions and values that drive consumer behavior. Recognizing the heterogeneity within the sample reveals previously overlooked nuances in this complex decision-making process.

ChatGPT has been receiving mounting research attention recently. However, its application and challenges to adopt for tourism and hospitality businesses remain relatively unexplored. To address this research gap, this study aims to systematically assess the application of ChatGPT and its challenges within the domain of tourism and hospitality.

This study conducts bibliometric and content analyses of papers retrieved from Web of Science and Scopus. Particularly, it systematically reviewed the tourism and hospitality research to identify critical applications of ChatGPT in the context of tourism and hospitality. In addition, this study identified challenges associated with the application of ChatGPT in this context.

It has been revealed that the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI), such as ChatGPT, in tourism and hospitality research is ascending, with an opportunity to advance the existing knowledge in customer service research. In addition, the results suggest an ongoing interest in assessing the role of AI and language modeling for tourism education and human resource management.

The results are constrained by the used search keywords and electronic databases. Additionally, this study covered only papers published in English. However, the findings shed light on existing knowledge concerning ChatGPT’s transformative potential, identify areas for further exploration and offer guidelines for practice in the tourism and hospitality industry. The findings also revealed various challenges that various stakeholders should keep a closer eye on to ensure the effective and safe use of ChatGPT accordingly.

This study initiates a discussion on ChatGPT’s role in tourism and hospitality and underscores the importance of comprehensive AI integration within the sector.

近年来, ChatGPT受到了越来越多的研究关注。然而, 它在旅游和酒店业中的应用及其面临的挑战仍然相对未被探索。为填补这一研究空白, 本研究系统评估了ChatGPT在旅游和酒店业中的应用及其挑战。

本研究通过对从Web of Science（WoS）和Scopus检索的文献进行文献计量分析和内容分析。特别是, 系统回顾了旅游和酒店业的研究, 以识别ChatGPT在这一背景下的关键应用, 并识别了与其应用相关的挑战。

研究揭示了生成式人工智能（如ChatGPT）在旅游和酒店业研究中的应用日益增多, 为推动客户服务研究的现有知识提供了机会。此外, 研究结果表明, 对人工智能和语言建模在旅游教育和人力资源管理中的作用存在持续的兴趣。

本研究开启了对ChatGPT在旅游和酒店业中作用的讨论, 并强调了在该行业中全面整合人工智能的重要性。

本研究受限于所用的搜索关键词和电子数据库。此外, 本研究仅涵盖了英文论文。然而, 研究结果揭示了关于ChatGPT变革潜力的现有知识, 确定了进一步探索的领域, 并为旅游和酒店业实践提供了指导。研究还揭示了各利益相关者应密切关注的各种挑战, 以确保ChatGPT的有效和安全使用。

This study aims to examine the mediating role of employee work engagement (EE) in the influence of job autonomy (JA) on innovative work behaviour (IWB) among pre-university teachers in Ghana.

To test the hypotheses set in the study, data was obtained from 202 pre-university teachers in Ghana using a questionnaire. Analyses of the data was done through partial least square structural equation modelling. The significance of the hypothesised paths was determined using bias-corrected and accelerated confidence intervals.

Teachers’ JA influences their IWB and work engagement. Also, EE influences IWB of teachers. Finally, EE plays a mediating role in the influence JA has on the IWB of teachers.

This study adds to the dearth of studies regarding the influence of JA on the IWB of teachers through work engagement using data from a heterogeneous group of pre-university teachers in Ghana.