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Live streaming e-commerce, which integrates real-time video interaction with online shopping, has quickly become a popular sales channel. It not only allows for immediate feedback but also builds a sense of trust and connection between streamers and consumers. Drawing on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), we investigate how central and peripheral route factors affect consumers’ trust building and purchase intentions. Additionally, we identify consumer involvement as a key moderator affecting the relationship between central route factors and trust in product as well as the relationship between peripheral route factors and trust in streamer.

To test the research model, we collected data from 423 consumers on TaoBao Live.

The findings show that information completeness, accuracy and currency positively affect trust in the product, while perceived physical characteristic similarity, streamer humor attractiveness and passion attractiveness positively affect trust in the streamer. Trust in the streamer positively influences trust in the product, which subsequently impacts purchase intention. Moreover, involvement moderates the effects of information accuracy, currency, perceived physical characteristic similarity and passion attractiveness on trust.

First, we examine the direct influence of product- and streamer-related cues on consumer trust and purchase intention through distinct pathways. Second, we adopt ELM to explain the process of consumer trust building by investigating how central and peripheral route factors influence purchase intention through consumer trust in live streaming settings. Third, we incorporate involvement as a crucial moderator, shedding light on the boundary conditions of trust building in live streaming e-commerce.

Purpose: This piece delves into the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in the healthcare field within the emerging realm of Industry 5.0, highlighting a people-focused and eco-friendly approach.

Need for the study: While Industry 4.0 set the foundation for digitization in healthcare, it frequently overlooked the human factor and concerns about sustainability. Industry 5.0 tackles these deficiencies by giving importance to human welfare, efficiency in resource usage, and societal consequences alongside technological progress.

Methodology: This research utilizes a survey of existing written works on Industry 5.0, AI in healthcare, and associated empowering technologies. It also leans on insights from recent investigations and business actions to pinpoint current patterns and future paths.

Findings: This chapter showcases how AI-driven solutions can greatly alter various facets of healthcare. Some of these healthcare facets encompass personalized medicine and treatment, intelligent diagnostics and decision support, robot-supported surgery and care, and enhanced availability and affordability.

Practical applications: This piece offers valuable perspectives for healthcare investors. These investors cover healthcare suppliers, technology creators, rule creators, and patients. By embracing the standards of Industry 5.0, the merging of AI into healthcare brings significant potential for crafting a more competent, sustainable, and people-centered healthcare network that benefits both patients and society as a complete unit. This research investigates the stance, viewpoints, and potential impacts of machine intelligence (MI) in health with an emphasis on Industry 5.0.

The emergence of live streaming commerce has injected promising impetus into rural development and attracted many rural streamers. This study aims to explore the influencing factors of rural streamers’ engagement intentions to help promote the sustainable development of rural live streaming commerce.

Grounded in the extended valence framework, this research employs a mixed-methods approach encompassing both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. In the qualitative phase, the authors conduct in-depth interviews with 15 rural streamers, employing data coding techniques to uncover underlying factors. Subsequently, in the quantitative phase, the authors analyze survey data from 282 rural streamers, subjecting hypotheses to validation through structural equation modeling.

The findings derived from the analysis of both interviews and questionnaires reveal that several platform qualities, including platform rural-aiding support, perceived effectiveness of dispute resolution, perceived interactivity and platform reputation, have a positive effect on trust in the platform and validate the extended valence framework in understanding rural streamers’ live streaming intention. In addition, ties with customers have a moderating effect. Specifically, the stronger the ties with customers, the stronger the positive effect of perceived benefits and the weaker the positive effect of trust in the platform on live streaming intention will be.

This study contributes to the rural live streaming commerce literature and trust research from the sellers’ perspective and provides practical implications for policymakers and live streaming platform managers on enhancing rural streamers’ participation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of political instability at the local level on foreign firms in China. Building on the literature on political embeddedness and business power, the authors propose a theoretical framework to explain how political turnover can affect foreign firms’ performance and how they respond to such challenges by leveraging their power bases.

To test the hypotheses, the authors apply fixed effects regression to an unbalanced panel data set comprising 13,360 foreign firms from 1998 to 2013 and the political replacement that involved changes in provincial governors.

The findings confirm that political turnover incidents have a negative impact on the performance of foreign firms in China. However, the authors also found that this negative relationship is weaker for firms that can choose various types of power sources. Specifically, the study reveals that foreign firms with large firm size, government ownership and a strong foreign direct investment community are better qualified to mitigate the negative effects of political instability.

This study contributes to the literature by developing the understanding of how political uncertainties and risks affect the performance of foreign firms in China and the importance of firms’ power in counterbalancing these effects. The research provides valuable insights into how multinational corporations can exploit their power to manage the effects of local political turnover, which has practical implications for the strategy and management of foreign firms operating in China.

The advent of online live streaming platforms (OLSPs) and online health communities (OHCs) has expedited the integration of traditional medical services with Internet new media technology. Since the practice of physicians conducting live streaming is a relatively new phenomenon, the potential cross-platform effects of such physicians’ live streaming have not received adequate attention.

This study collected data from 616 physicians specializing in cardiology, obstetrics and gynecology and neurology between April and November 2022 on Live.Baidu.com and WeDoctor.com. It constructed a panel data set comprising a total of 4,928 observations over an 8-month period and validated the model using empirical analysis with the fixed-effects method.

We find evidence of cross-platform influence in online healthcare. Physicians’ live streaming behavior (whether live or not and the heat of their streams) on OLSPs positively impacts both their consultation and reputation on OHCs. Additionally, physicians’ ability positively moderates the relationships between live streaming heat and their performance (in terms of consultation volume and reputation) on OHCs. However, ability does not moderate the relationship between physicians’ live streaming status (live or not) and their performance (in terms of consultation and reputation) on OHCs. Furthermore, the attractive appearance of the physicians also significantly moderates the impact in a positive way.

This is one of the pioneering studies on physicians’ live streaming. The study offers vital guidance for physicians and patients utilizing dual platforms and holds significant reference value for platform operators (such as OLSPs and OHCs) aiming to optimize platform operations and for the government in policy formulation and industry regulation.

The rapid development of digital reading has made it a mainstream reading method for the public, and scholars have conducted research on its effectiveness.The purpose of this study is to systematically summarize and generalize the factors that affect the effectiveness of digital reading in current practical research.

Retrieved the search results from the Web of Science database and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure database, collected the relevant literature in both Chinese and English on the effectiveness of digital reading, qualitatively coded the relevant literature, and conducted a systematic literature review analysis on the factors affecting the effectiveness of digital reading.

There are 37 factors that influence the effectiveness of digital reading, forming five factor themes, namely, the reading subject, reading environment, organizational support, technical support and reading text. The five influencing factor themes are further divided into three types of functional mechanisms, namely, driving, supportive and assurance mechanisms. Based on this, a research framework is proposed, providing a comprehensive approach for the research positioning of digital reading effectiveness.

A research framework is proposed, providing a comprehensive approach for the research positioning of digital reading effectiveness.

This chapter delved into the multifaceted landscape of construction partnering, exploring its key aspects, promotion factors, and associated challenges. It examined how partnering principles are applied in various construction contexts, including stealth construction, where integration of advanced technologies and collaborative practices is pivotal. Moreover, it highlighted the significance of partnering in addressing crucial considerations such as environmental protection, health and safety, project delivery duration, aesthetics, and economy during and after the construction phase. Through collaborative efforts and shared responsibilities, construction partnering emerges as a cornerstone for achieving excellence and sustainability in the built environment.

This study aims to propose a research framework grounded in the technology acceptance model (TAM) to assess the new service experiences in the medical industry through examining the intention to use online-to-offline (O2O) medical platforms. It focuses on the connections between immediacy of connection, context-based affordability, reliability and perceived convenience and perceived usefulness. This study also looks at how these determinants affect users’ intentions to use O2O medical platforms, with a particular emphasis on the moderating effect of customer online reviews.

This study was a quantitative research endeavour grounded in the TAM model that analysed usage intention of O2O medical platforms. Conducted in Sarawak, within the Borneo region, a total of 251 rows of data were collected by questionnaire and underwent initial analysis using SPSS, followed by a more in-depth two-stage partial least squares structural equation model analysis conducted with SmartPLS4.

According to this study’s findings, perceived usefulness and perceived convenience are significantly impacted by the proposed predictors – immediacy of connection, context-based affordability and reliability. Furthermore, intention to use O2O medical platforms was discovered to have a positive and significant impact from perceived usefulness and perceived convenience. It is noteworthy that the association among perceived convenience and perceived usefulness – which leads to usage intention of O2O medical platforms – did not show the moderating effect of customer online reviews.

The findings suggested that context-based affordability, immediacy of connection and reliability need to be focused on by the information and communication technology developers, policymakers and medical professionals, as these variables can influence perceived convenience and usefulness, which will further impact the intention to use O2O medical platforms.

The formulated research framework holds significance in comprehending the usage intention of O2O medical platforms among consumers in Sarawak. O2O medical platforms have experienced global growth; however, limited studies were found in the Malaysian context. Hence, the objective of this study is to examine the intention to use O2O medical platforms in a relatively understudied area, specifically in Sarawak, an island located in Borneo, Malaysia.

Message stream advertising (MSA) has become an increasingly popular option for advertising on mobile social media. However, MSA is often avoided by consumers, and this avoidance deserves more research attention. The purpose of this study is therefore to identify the underlying mechanism and key variables that affect consumer avoidance of MSA in the context of mobile social media.

A face-to-face survey was administered to current mobile users of WeChat (N = 438). Structural equation modeling was conducted to test the relationships in the research model.

Results revealed that mobile consumers employ mechanical avoidance methods (i.e. zipping, muting and zapping) against MSA. The findings also demonstrated that advertising intrusiveness (stimulus) is directly linked to negative emotions, perceived entertainment and sense of control (organism), which, in turn, relate to MSA avoidance (response).

The study contributes to the MSA avoidance literature by using the stimulus-organism-response model to deepen the understanding of consumers' MSA avoidance on mobile social media, and it suggests important managerial implications for advertising practitioners and platform operators.