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COVID-19 has been the subject of a number of inquiries recently. All country's capital market practices have been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. Economic woes, along with the stock market crash, have hit emerging markets and developing economies in a variety of directions.

This study is an attempt to focus on the Indian economy to provide the gist of the situation and recovery mode of an economy with the help of growth indicators of the economy.

This study is based on secondary data. The researchers applied some econometric tools, viz, unit root test Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF), Panel Granger Causality, and Panel ARDL Bound Test were applied to examine the relationship of economic indicators and stock market benchmark in two periods: March 2020–June 2021 (during period) and July 2021 to March 2022 (post period).

The findings of this study explored the different causal relationships for the selected variables in both periods. The study discussed the reasons for ARDL (Auto Regressive Distributed Lag) bound for all selected factors. The study revealed the story of crude oil prices and Gold as trusted investment avenues during the crises.

As we know, the capital market's backlash is reflected in movements in stock prices and stock exchange volume, which are concerned with the economic effects of the pandemic and urged the segment to react. Investors can use the information in the event to make investment decisions.

This study aims to investigate the impact of service quality (SQ), perceived value (PV) and consumer satisfaction on Thai street food, with customer satisfaction (CS) as a mediator for customer loyalty and repurchase intention (RI). It also explores how consumer trust (CT) in Thai street food safety moderates these relationships.

Structural equation modelling (SEM) was utilised to analyse the complex interrelationships between various constructs. Multi-group analyses were conducted to investigate the moderating effects of CT on the structural model, considering two distinct groups based on trust levels: low and high.

The findings revealed that SQ and PV significantly influenced CS and behavioural intention, while the perceived quality of Thai street food had no significant impact on post-COVID-19 consumer satisfaction. The study highlighted the critical role of CT in moderating the relationships between SQ, PV and CS, with distinct effects observed in groups with varying trust levels.

The research emphasises the importance of enhancing SQ and delivering value to customers in the context of Thai street food, which can contribute to increased CS, RI and positive word-of-mouth. Furthermore, the study underscores the critical role of building CT in fostering enduring customer relationships and promoting consumer satisfaction and loyalty.

This research offers valuable insights into consumer behaviour and decision-making processes, particularly within the realm of Thai street food. It underscores the significance of understanding and nurturing CT, especially in the post-COVID-19 landscape, emphasising the need for effective business strategies and consumer engagement.

Based on the micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) technology, acoustic emission sensors have gained popularity owing to their small size, consistency, affordability and easy integration. This study aims to provide direction for the advancement of MEMS acoustic emission sensors and predict their future potential for structural health detection of microprecision instruments.

This paper summarizes the recent research progress of three MEMS acoustic emission sensors, compares their individual strengths and weaknesses, analyzes their research focus and predicts their development trend in the future.

Piezoresistive, piezoelectric and capacitive MEMS acoustic emission sensors are the three main streams of MEMS acoustic emission sensors, which have their own advantages and disadvantages. The existing research has not been applied in practice, and MEMS acoustic emission sensor still needs further research in the aspects of wide frequency/high sensitivity, good robustness and integration with complementary metal oxide semiconductor. MEMS acoustic emission sensor has great development potential.

In this paper, the existing research achievements of MEMS acoustic emission sensors are described systematically, and the further development direction of MEMS acoustic emission sensors in the future research field is pointed out. It provides an important reference value for the actual weak acoustic emission signal detection in narrow structures.

This study evaluates the relative preference for local foods among foreign tourists. It also assessed how the sociodemographic profiles of tourists influence their local food preferences.

This research utilized a mixed-methods approach. The initial qualitative analysis phase involved semi-structured, in-depth interviews with stakeholders in Fiji’s local food sector, providing feedback on tourists’ preferred dishes. In the second phase, 204 foreign tourists were surveyed through the location intercept approach at various local restaurants, street food joints and eateries across Fiji. The preferences of these foreign tourists for the local food were subsequently analyzed utilizing the analytical hierarchical process (AHP) model and Chi-square statistics.

This research identified 25 local food dishes most preferred by foreign tourists. A pairwise comparison matrix revealed that “Kokoda” was most preferred, while “Tuna Ika Vakalolo” was the least preferred, and the normalized matrix presented the estimated overall priorities of the local foods based on taste and flavor. Among all the factors analyzed for their potential influence on the local food preferences of foreign tourists, “education attainment” and “marital status” were found to have no significant influence.

This study highlights the varied local dishes preferred by tourists, assessed through the AHP model, and provides the sociodemographic factors influencing these preferences. By identifying and presenting local Fijian dishes across regions and examining sociodemographics’ impact on food preference, this research provides invaluable implications for significantly benefiting the local food vending sector.

This research aims to assess the dimensions of local gastronomic image by identifying the vital gastronomic image traits utilised by foreign tourists for their evaluation of local foods while investigating any perceived disparities in the gastronomic image among Eastern and Western tourists.

It combined mixed-methods research involving 17 in-depth interviews with restaurant stakeholders in Fiji and analysis of responses from 221 foreign tourists using multivariate and descriptive statistical methodologies. A total of 25 local gastronomic image traits were assessed to understand tourists’ perceptions, which were further refined into foundational constructs through exploratory factor analysis.

Results highlighted that dishes like Kokoda, Palusami and Lovo are top favourites among both Eastern and Western tourists due to their less spicy nature. Findings also revealed that tourists positively evaluated four cognitive/perceptual dimensions of local gastronomic image: taste and freshness, culture and food authenticity, emotional food image, and quality and price value. Among all constructs, “freshness and taste” most significantly impacted foreign tourists’ satisfaction with their gourmet/culinary experiences, while “digestibility and nutritional value” showed the least value.

This research contributes to understanding how a destination’s gastronomic image influences tourists’ perceptions and how it can be effectively utilised to showcase the cultural uniqueness of destinations like Fiji.

The surge in pharmaceutical and health supplement usage among consumers aims to enhance personal well-being. This growing opportunity for pharmaceutical brands has resulted in increased market share and intensified industry competition. Using the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), this study aims to identify the factors influencing Malaysians’ choices regarding pharmaceutical and health supplements. In addition, the variable of past behaviour was incorporated to account for consumer decisions based on prior experiences.

Using purposive sampling, 300 questionnaires were gathered and analysed via Statistical Package for the Social Sciences and structural equation modelling technique via Analysis of Moment Structures software to validate the reliability of each variables and the postulated relationships within the research framework.

Results revealed a pronounced impact of past behaviour on the intention to consume pharmaceutical and health supplements. The mediating role of perceived behavioural control in bridging past behaviour and consumption intention was also ascertained. Notably, the findings support the inclusion of past behaviour in the TPB as a pivotal determinant of intention.

The insights gleaned underscore the escalating trend of pharmaceutical consumption in Malaysia, providing strategies to enhance and maintain the competitive edge and market position of pharmaceutical brands.

The purpose of this study is to identify and understand distinct tourist segments in Phuket, focusing on their characteristics, attitudes and perceptions as visitors to a creative gastronomic destination.

In this study, cluster analysis is used to identify tourist segments in Phuket, a well-known United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) gastronomic city. The analysis is based on data collected from 525 domestic Thai tourists.

Cluster analysis revealed three distinct tourist segments: gastronomy enthusiasts, taste discoverers and gourmet wanderers. These segments exhibit significant differences in their characteristics and perceptions of Phuket’s gastronomic offerings.

This study is limited to domestic Thai tourists in Phuket and does not include international visitors. In addition, the findings are specific to the context of Phuket and may not be entirely generalizable to other gastronomic destinations.

The identified tourist segments provide valuable guidance for tourism professionals to tailor their marketing efforts, develop targeted products and meet the preferences of different gastronomically oriented tourists, contributing to the successful management of a gastronomic city.

This study contributes to the fields of destination management and gastronomy tourism by providing valuable insights for practitioners seeking to enhance their offerings and consider the preferences of different gastronomically oriented tourist segments. Identifying these segments enriches the understanding of visitor behavior in creative gastronomy cities.

This paper provides new evidence on Indian tourism firms by investigating the role of a firm's financial conditions typified by its leverage, earnings, size, cash holdings, and excess cash in moderating the pandemic-led idiosyncratic volatility in its stock prices.

The authors employ a firm-level panel comprising 82 publicly-listed tourism firms from India. Firm risk is estimated for the period beginning January 2020 to December 2020.

This paper finds non-linear effects of the pandemic on the idiosyncratic risk of the sample firms. Precisely, stock price volatility rises, but as the market absorbs this information, volatility subsides even as the disease spreads further. Further, lower levels of past debt and earnings and higher cash holdings ameliorate the pandemic's effects on tourism firms' risk. Contrasting the view that “excess” cash reflects poor operational performance, we show that “excess” cash firms are better prepared to face the adverse effects of the pandemic.

This study’s sample period fully encompasses the first wave of the pandemic (January–December 2020) of the novel coronavirus infection spread.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to assess the moderating effects of company fundamentals on the risk of Indian tourism firms. In doing so, the authors account for non-linear effects of the pandemic on firms' idiosyncratic volatility over time.

Although research on how the downstream calculations of a patent’s profit potential influence invention renewal decisions is extensive, the impact of the upstream knowledge creation stages is overlooked. The purpose of this study is to address this theoretical vacuum by examining the intra-organizational configuration of knowledge networks and collaboration networks.

The data consist of 491 global pharmaceutical firms that patent in the USA. Drawing on patent records, the authors simultaneously construct intra-organizational knowledge networks and collaboration networks and identify network cohesion features (i.e. local and global). The authors employ panel fixed-effects models to test the hypotheses.

The results show that local knowledge cohesion and local social cohesion decrease invention renewals, while global knowledge cohesion and global social cohesion increase renewals. Moreover, the marginal effects of local and global social cohesion are stronger than those of local and global knowledge cohesion, respectively.

The hypotheses are tested using the pharmaceutical industry as a research setting, which limits the generalizability of our findings. In addition, potential formal and informal contingencies are not considered.

Despite its limitations, this study provides valuable implications. First, managers are cautioned against the adverse effects of local cohesion structures on invention renewal. Second, firms can dynamically adjust their local and global network configuration strategies to harmonize the generation of valuable inventions and the retention of good ideas.

Complementary to previous research that focused on inventions’ performance feedback, this study delves into upstream knowledge creation stages to understand invention renewals.

This study aims to examine the association between mandatory corporate social responsibility (CSR) regulations (CSR mandate) and social disclosures (SOCDS) in India. It also investigates whether CSR committees mediate the relationship between CSR mandate and SOCDS. Furthermore, this paper explores how business group (BG) affiliation moderates CSR committee quality and SOCDS.

This study uses a data set of 5,345 observations from the Bombay stock exchange (BSE)-listed firms over 10 years (2011–2020) to examine the research questions. Baron and Kenny’s (1986) three-step model is estimated to examine the mediating role of CSR committees on the relationship between CSR mandate and SOCDS.

The study reveals that the CSR mandate positively impacts SOCDS in India due to coercive pressures. CSR committees mediate this relationship, with higher CSR committee quality leading to increased SOCDS. Furthermore, the authors report that SOCDS in India is positively related to CSR committee quality, and this relationship is stronger for BG firms. Finally, the supplementary analysis reveals that promoting CSR committee quality enhances firms’ likelihood of meeting CSR mandatory spending and actual CSR spending in India.

This research contributes to the academic literature by shedding light on the intricate dynamics of CSR mandates, CSR committees and SOCDS in emerging economies. Notably, the authors identify the previously unexplored mediation role of CSR committees in the link between CSR mandates and SOCDS. The creation of a composite index that measures complementary CSR committee attributes allows us to undertake a novel assessment of CSR committee quality. An examination of the moderating influence of BG affiliation documents the importance of CSR committee quality, particularly in governance, for enhancing SOCDS transparency within BG firms.