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This study aims to explore students’ perceptions of the use of an artificial intelligence-generated content avatar (AIGC avatar) within a learning management system (LMS).

This qualitative research involved seven postgraduate students. Data were collected through individual, in-depth interviews. The videos of the AIGC avatar, created using Leonardo, ChatGPT and Heygen, were uploaded to the LMS to communicate with students for the purposes of a welcome note, assignment guide, assignment feedback, tutorial reminders and preparation as well as to provide encouragement and study tips. Students were interviewed at the end of the semester.

The findings of this study indicated that the majority of participating students held positive perceptions regarding the use of the AIGC avatar in the LMS. They reported that it enhanced their perceived instructor’s social presence and motivation to learn. The assignment guide and feedback were particularly valued by the participants. While some students noted the AIGC avatar’s lack of naturalness, others appreciated the clear and professional speech it delivered.

The study was confined to seven students from a single course at one institution, which may limit the generalizability of the findings. Future research could involve a larger and more diverse group of participants.

The findings may offer education providers an alternative solution for engaging students in an LMS.

This study highlights the potential of AIGC avatars to replace text-based communication in LMS and enhance students’ perceived instructor social presence.

This study analyzes what type of influencer – microcelebrity or microinfluencer – is best suited to promoting healthy food brands and how that influence depends on consumers’ healthy lifestyles.

An empirical study with a real healthy food brand was developed in which three real influencers from Instagram collaborated and posted a story showing the company’s products. A total of 148 individuals participated in the study. The proposed model was tested using the PROCESS macro.

Drawing on the celebrity endorsement literature and the meaning transfer model, this study proposes that microcelebrities’ and microinfluencers’ influence on consumers’ perception and behavior in terms of post relevance, brand attitude and purchase intention toward healthy food brands depends on the consumers’ healthy lifestyle. Thus, microcelebrities have more influence on individuals with unhealthy lifestyles, while microinfluencers have more influence on individuals that pursue a healthy lifestyle.

It is one of the first studies to examine the different roles of microinfluencers versus microcelebrities in promoting consumers’ attitudes and behaviors toward healthy food brands. In addition, this is one of the few studies to show a higher effect of microcelebrities over microinfluencers.

本研究擬探討是哪類型的網絡名人 - 微名人或微素人- 最為適合去推廣健康食品商標; 研究亦擬探討這些網絡名人的影響會如何取決於消費者健康的生活方式。

研究人員設計了一個觀察研究, 他們安排三位真實的即時電報(lnstagram) 網路紅人一起合作, 各人分別在自己的平台上發帖, 內容是關於一間公司產品的故事。研究參與者共148人, 研究人員使用 PROCESS macro 來測試他們建議的模型。

研究人員使用有關名人代言的文獻和意義遷移模型, 並以此提出一個建議: 消費者健康的生活方式會決定微名人和微素人會如何影響消費者的看法和行為, 這是就帖子相關性、品牌態度和購買保健食品品牌的打算而言的。研究人員從而發現, 微名人對選擇過不良生活方式的人的影響會較大, 而微素人則對追求健康生活方式的人的影響會較大。

本研究為首個研究, 去探討微素人在推動消費者對保健食品品牌的態度和行為上所扮演不同的角色; 而且, 本研究證實了微名人的影響比微素人的更大, 而找到這研究結果的學術研究為數不多。

The purpose of this study is to explore brand customer erosion at both the category and brand levels while considering consumer socio-demographic characteristics and weight of purchase factors.

Data from 3,563 buyers encompassing 20,601 purchases were collected from a prominent household data panel.

Brand customer erosion varies depending on socio-demographic factors (householder age, family size, life cycle and social class) and weight of purchase; variations are evident depending on the specific brand.

The paper makes a substantial contribution to the established fields of marketing and consumer behavior literature by opening a new line of research. It does so by demonstrating, the impact of socio-demographic factors on customer erosion. Simultaneously, it presents results that contradict the limited existing research on the influence of weight of purchase on brand customer erosion.

This study aims to analyze the multicultural consumers’ perceptions multicultural consumers’ perceptions of their experience after participating in online cocreation actions in the fashion industry and the behavioral consequences of that experience.

This research was conducted in Spain and the UK, with 800 active online cocreators, leading to a proposal of a comprehensive model of the cocreation experience and its effects on satisfaction and engagement with the brand and the intention to continue cocreating using a multi-group covariance structural equation model.

All the proposed hypotheses were confirmed. Cocreation activities influence the cocreation experience, which, in turn, generates a positive effect on the behavioral responses of individuals in terms of satisfaction, engagement and future intentions to continue participating in the brand’s cocreation activities. The cocreation patterns are similar in both countries, leading to a comparable behavioral model across different cultural contexts. The findings conclude with relevant recommendations on how brands can improve their globalization strategies.

The practical utility for a fashion retailer arises from acknowledging the different dimensions of the cocreation experience as mechanisms to develop strategies that foster customer participation, thus enhancing satisfaction, brand engagement and advocacy. The results also advocate for the proposition of similar actions across different markets, given the homogeneity of behaviors, likely through global platforms that facilitate participation from different markets toward the creation of global communities.

The significant contribution of this research lies in the detailed proposal for measuring the cocreation experience and its integration into a comprehensive model of the impact of cocreation on classic behavioral variables. Furthermore, the differential analysis across two countries provides the added value of a multicultural evaluation of the phenomenon.

The paper aims to address the gap in the literature related to students’ mindsets and learning activities through investigation of the differences in students’ expectations of, feelings towards, and perceptions of an overseas study tour based on their mindset. The study provides an in-depth analysis of students with different mindsets and proposes the use of overseas tours and intercultural learning to foster students’ growth mindset.

An overseas study tour hosted by a self-financing tertiary institution in Hong Kong was selected for investigation. 13 sub-degree students participated in the study tour during the summer term in 2018. Two types of primary data – quantitative (i.e., a questionnaire survey) and qualitative (i.e., in-depth interviews) – of fixed mindset and growth mindset students were collected for analysis.

The findings indicate differences in students’ expectations of, feelings towards, and perceptions of an overseas study tour depending on whether they demonstrate a fixed or growth mindset. The growth mindset students had more and higher expectations of the study tour, all of which were related to personal growth and development. The fixed mindset students did not have as much of a desire for personal development and their expectations were easily met. Both growth and fixed mindset students had positive feelings and perceptions of the tour.

Research on the application value of overseas study tours in helping students from self-financing tertiary institutions develop a growth mindset is scarce, and thus warrants further investigation.

This paper aims to analyze the customer-based brand equity index (CBBE-I) of Tourism Brand Kurukshetra.

For the purpose of this study, the author uses primary and secondary data on destination attractiveness of Tourism Brand Kurukshetra for a sample of 150 tourists including domestic and international. The study used structural equation modeling and factor weighting methods.

The research presents an investigation into the destination attractiveness index of Tourism Brand Kurukshetra in an emerging market, i.e. Kurukshetra. Tourism Brand Kurukshetra from the brand equity perspective is an attractive destination.

It suggests that the CBBE index of Kurukshetra ought to analyze a longitudinal study to get the proper image of Kurukshetra from a touristic perspective. It provides long-term attractiveness to enhance tourism.

This is the first brand equity study contributed to branding literature of Tourism Brand Kurukshetra. The index is an accomplished way to present the tourism condition of any destination.

Petroleum hydrocarbons are naturally occurring flammable fossil fuels used as conventional energy sources. It has carcinogenic, mutagenic properties and is considered a hazardous pollutant. Soil contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons adversely affects the properties of soil. This paper aim to remove pollutants from the environment is an urgent need of the hour to maintain the proper functioning of soil ecosystems.

The ability of micro-organisms to degrade petroleum hydrocarbons makes it possible to use these microorganisms to clean the environment from petroleum pollution. For preparing this review, research papers and review articles related to petroleum hydrocarbons degradation by micro-organisms were collected from journals and various search engines.

Various physical and chemical methods are used for remediation of petroleum hydrocarbons contaminants. However, these methods have several disadvantages. This paper will discuss a novel understanding of petroleum hydrocarbons degradation and how micro-organisms help in petroleum-contaminated soil restoration. Bioremediation is recognized as the most environment-friendly technique for remediation. The research studies demonstrated that bacterial consortium have high biodegradation rate of petroleum hydrocarbons ranging from 83% to 89%.

Proper management of petroleum hydrocarbons pollutants from the environment is necessary because of their toxicity effects on human and environmental health.

This paper discussed novel mechanisms adopted by bacteria for biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons, aerobic and anaerobic biodegradation pathways, genes and enzymes involved in petroleum hydrocarbons biodegradation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the purchase behavior of consumers towards green products by adapting and extending the theory of planned behavior with the inclusion of three pertinent environmental factors posited to reflect environmental consciousness in the form of environmental concern, environmental knowledge and environmental values.

The data was collected from 410 consumers at shopping malls with retail stores selling green and non-green products in a developing country using cluster sampling and analyzed using covariance-based structural equation modeling.

The findings of this study indicate that environmental factors reflecting environmental consciousness positively influence consumers’ attitude towards purchasing green products, wherein consumers’ environmental values have a stronger influence than their environmental concern and environmental knowledge. The findings also reveal that subjective norm, attitude and perceived behavioral control toward purchasing green products positively shape green purchase intention. The same positive effect is also witnessed between green purchase intention and behavior. However, perceived behavioral control towards purchasing green products had no significant influence on green purchase behavior.

This study suggests that green marketers should promote environmental consciousness among consumers to influence and shape their planned behavior towards green purchases. This could be done by prioritizing efforts and investments in inculcating environmental values, followed by enhancing environmental knowledge and finally inducing environmental concern among consumers. Green marketers can also leverage subjective norm and perceptions of behavioral control toward purchasing green products to reinforce green purchase intention, which, in turn, strengthens green purchase behavior. This green marketing strategy should also be useful to address the intention–behavior gap as seen through the null effect of perceived behavioral control on purchase behavior toward green products when this strategy is present.

This study contributes to theoretical generalizability by reaffirming the continued relevance of the theory of planned behavior in settings concerning the environment (e.g. green purchases), and theoretical extension by augmenting environmental concern, environmental knowledge and environmental values with the theory of planned behavior, resulting in an environmentally conscious theory of planned behavior. The latter is significant and noteworthy, as this study broadens the conceptualization and operationalization of environmental consciousness from a unidimensional to a multidimensional construct.

This study investigates the impact of board independence on firm risk of Vietnamese listed firms and the moderating effect of capital expenditure on this relationship.

This paper applies fixed effects and dynamic generalized method of moments (GMM) models to examine hypothesized associations between the proportion of nonexecutive directors and stock return volatility, as well as the moderating effect of capital expenditure. The robustness tests are implemented by applying alternative measures of overinvestment and firm risk.

The results show that the presence of nonexecutive directors on board increases firm risk. However, the combination of nonexecutive ratio and capital expenditure ratio has a significant negative impact on firm risk. The result is also confirmed by the difference between the monitoring role of nonexecutive directors in overinvesting and underinvesting firms.

The results imply that Vietnamese listed firms take stock return volatility into consideration before nominating and appointing nonexecutive directors into their board, especially in overinvesting firms. From another perspective, the shift toward having a majority of nonexecutive directors on boards can play a significant role in pursuing a stable or risky business strategy.

This paper investigates the influences of nonexecutive directors on firm risk in the context of Vietnam.

This study aims to provide a comprehensive review and bibliometric analysis of the literature in the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education over the past 15 years, with a specific focus on global distribution and research trends.

This study collected 1,718 documents from the Web of Science (WOS) database and analyzed their timeline distribution, geographical distribution, research topics, subject areas, learning stages and citation burst using a bibliometric approach with VOSviewer and Citespace.

Results indicated that: overall, STEM education has increasingly gained scholarly attention and is developing diversely by emphasizing interdisciplinary, cross-domain and regional collaboration. In terms of global collaboration, a collaborative network with the USA in the center is gradually expanding to a global scope. In terms of research themes, four key topics can be outlined including educational equity, pedagogy, empirical effects and career development. Social, cultural and economic factors influence the way STEM education is implemented across different countries. The developed Western countries highlighted educational equity and disciplinary integration, while the developing countries tend to focus more on pedagogical practices. As for research trends, eastern countries are emphasizing humanistic leadership and cultural integration in STEM education; in terms of teachers’ professional development, teachers’ abilities of interdisciplinary integration, technology adoption and pedagogy application are of the greatest importance. With regards to pedagogy, the main focus is for developing students’ higher-order abilities. In terms of education equity, issues of gender and ethnicity were still the hottest topics, while the unbalanced development of STEM education across regions needs further research.

This study provides a global landscape of STEM education along the timeline, which illustrates the yearly progressive development of STEM education and indicates the future trends.