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While the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc across the globe in 2020 and early 2021, Vietnam made some achievements in containing this virus. This study aims to focus on how government response could influence public compliance in Vietnam in 2020 (the first pandemic year).

The authors used data gathered from individuals residing in Vietnam during the COVID-19 social distancing in April 2020. An online survey was used to collect the data. To conduct the empirical analysis, we used a structural equation model (SEM). The data were analyzed using SPSS 25 and AMOS 24.

Government response was positively associated with public compliance through the mediating roles of trust in government and support for government.

This research provides implications for crisis management in developing countries during a public health crisis, especially when or where vaccines are unavailable.

This research is among the first attempts that examine how government response enhances citizen compliance directly and indirectly through the mediating roles of citizen trust in government and citizen support for government.

This study aims to identify the relationships between the electronic word of mouth (eWOM), brand image (Brand) and online purchase intention (INT) of young customers during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic period.

The covariance-based SEM and the multi-group invariance analysis (MGA) were applied to investigate the proposed model with the data collected via an online survey during the fourth wave of COVID-19 in Vietnam.

The results showed that eWOM quantity (eQuan) has a significant positive effect on eWOM credibility (eC) in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, whereas Brand positively partially mediates the relationship between eQuan and INT, this construct plays a positively fully mediating role in the relationship between eC and INT. Finally, the results indicated that there is no significant difference in the invariance indicators related to the gender of respondents.

This study has some contributions not only to the theoretical framework for understanding the online purchase behaviour of young customers in the pandemic context, but also to the practical implications of how to use different dimensions of eWOM accordingly to enhance a company's brand image in the online business environment.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, mass media play a vital role in containing the outbreak of the virus by quickly and effectively delivering risk communication messages to the public. This research examines the effects of risk communication exposure on public understanding and risk perception of COVID-19 and public compliance with health preventive measures.

Data from Vietnam during COVID-19 social distancing and path analysis model are used for empirical analysis.

This analysis finds that exposure to risk communication in mass media encourages public compliance directly and indirectly through the mediating roles of public understanding and risk perception. Further investigations also find that exposure to risk communication in both online media and traditional media facilitates public compliance. In addition, exposure to risk communication in online media only raises public risk perception, whereas exposure to risk communication in traditional media only raises public understanding.

This research implies that traditional and online media should be combined to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of government risk communication work.

This research is among the first attempts that examine the role of mass media (both traditional and online) in enhancing public compliance with preventive measures directly and indirectly through the mediating roles of public risk perception and understanding.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, government risk communication to the public was among the critical works, as the governments had to fight two enemies at once: the pandemic itself and the infodemic surrounding the COVID-19. Government risk communication could provide the public with prompt and accurate information as well as eliminate fake news, rumors and misinformation, thereby raising the public’s knowledge and risk perception and, thus, shaping their compliance with the government’s advices and directives. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of government risk communication through mass media on the public’s knowledge, risk perception and compliance with safety measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ordinary least square and probit regression models were used for analyzing data collected from citizens living in Vietnam during the COVID-19 social distancing.

The results of this paper show that government risk communication enhances the public’s knowledge of the COVID-19 and raises their risk perception of the virus. In addition, government risk communication is found to shape the public’s compliance with most safety measures.

This paper offers practical implications for containing a pandemic (especially in the context that vaccines are unavailable or insufficient) by emphasizing the role of government risk communication.

This paper is among the first attempts that examine the role of government risk communication through mass media in enhancing the public’s knowledge, their risk perception and their compliance with safety measures during a pandemic.

Emerging economies have been highlighted as an important growth source of the global economy. However, this group of countries has not received enough academic attention yet. Therefore, this study aims to identify the impact of research and development (R&D) expenditure on economic growth in emerging economies.

The theoretical framework of the production function is applied to quantitatively analyse the impact of R&D expenditure on economic growth with a sample of 29 emerging economies in the period between 1996 and 2019.

The panel cointegration test confirms the existence of long-run cointegration relationships between economic growth and independent variables in these emerging economies. Besides, the estimated results show that the national R&D expenditure has positive effects on economic growth from both direct and interaction dimensions. This evidence has filled the empirical research gap in the R&D-growth nexus in the case of emerging economies. Finally, while gross capital and education have positive impacts on growth, corruption has a harmful effect on economic growth in these countries.

The results highlight that policymakers should enhance R&D expenditure and R&D activities as the key national development strategy. The investment in R&D not only helps emerging economies avoid the middle-income trap but also pushes these countries to successfully join the group of developed countries.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is among the first to examine the impact of R&D expenditure on economic growth with a homogeneous sample of emerging economies. The results are obviously helpful for policymakers to use R&D as the key development strategy for supporting economic growth in emerging economies in the future.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, it has raised an important question of whether government efforts (GEFs), especially communication work, could prevent the outbreak of this pandemic by enhancing public trust and public compliance with the government. This research answers this question by focusing on the case of Vietnam, a low-resource country that gained some achievements during the first pandemic year 2020. In particular, this study aims to investigate the relationship between GEF, public trust and public compliance during the country’s first nationwide social distancing.

The structural equation modelling is used to analyse data collected from 467 respondents in Vietnam during the nationwide social distancing in 2020.

Perceived GEF is positively associated with public compliance with the government directly and indirectly through the mediating role of public trust in government (PTG). The empirical results also reveal the effectiveness of government communication work, one among the government’s great efforts, during the COVID-19 pandemic, in terms of intensity and diversity in communication and information channels.

During a pandemic, the governments must enhance public compliance with public health measures to implement the anti-epidemic missions effectively. Therefore, it is important to raise public perception of GEF and PTG. The study’s findings highlight that governments in developing countries should implement relevant responses and policies for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and future public health crises, especially in the context that effective vaccines are unavailable or insufficient.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is among the first attempts that examine the role of GEF, especially public health communication work, in raising public compliance directly and indirectly through the mediating role of public trust. The study carries some important messages for containing a public health crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, public health risk communication has been a vital work. Students account for a large proportion of the population and are often highly mobile; thus, they face a high risk of contagion and spreading the disease. Therefore, risk communication to this group during the pandemic has been essential. This research examines the relationship between risk communication to students and their appropriate behaviors (compliance with COVID-19 preventive measures and COVID-19 information sharing).

This research used structural equation model (SEM) and generalized structural equation model (GSEM) to analyze the data collected from students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The findings revealed that risk communication in mass media was positively associated with students' compliance with preventive measures and sharing pandemic-related information. Additionally, their compliance behavior was positively associated with their information-sharing behavior.

This research offers some implications regarding the containment of a highly-infectious virus, especially for the context when the risk of outbreak is high and an effective vaccine is not available, by focusing on risk communication and compliance and information-sharing behaviors.

This research is one of the early attempts to examine the risk communication to students, their compliance with preventive measures and their information-sharing behavior during a pandemic.

This study aims to test the first and second-stage moderating effects of tourists’ past travel experiences on the relationships between national responses, destination trust and tourists’ willingness to pay in the post-pandemic recovery era.

The proposed model was tested with a sample of 398 tourists in Vietnam. The path analysis was applied to investigate the mediating and moderating effects.

The findings emphasise the mediating effect of destination trust in the relationships between national responses and tourists’ willingness to pay. With the moderating effect of past travel experience, all the first-stage indirect effects are significant, but the second-stage indirect effects are significant only at a high level of past travel experience.

This study provides theoretical implications for solving the puzzle about the paradox of trust in the government’s responses in the post-pandemic era. Practical implications for destination marketing organisations in the post-pandemic recovery era are then discussed.

Consumer green behavior is a spotlight topic in both theoretical and practical business environments. This study aims to investigate the primary drivers of green intention behaviors among Generation Z customers by integrating the Social Cognitive Theory and the Theory of Planned Behavior. Additionally, perceived environmental responsibility serves as a moderating factor.

The study polled 283 Generation Z people who have purchased green products in Vietnam. Using the PLS_SEM model, we employ mediation and moderation analysis to investigate and evaluate the hypotheses.

Our findings reveal that both environmental concern and perceived marketplace influence have direct effects on attitudes toward green products as well as indirect effect on green purchase intention. Unlike previous studies, perceived environmental responsibility behaves as a moderated factor, driving the relationship between consumers' attitudes and green purchase intentions.

The outcomes of this study provide helpful implications for managers in improving green products based on the green purchase behavior of young customers.

By merging the Social Cognitive Theory and the Theory of Planned Behavior to analyze the antecedent variables of attitude and intention, this study contributes to the pro-environmental literature. It explains the underlying mediation processes of organisms and behavioral reactions, emphasizing the role of perceived environmental responsibility in regulating these frameworks. The results are critical in promoting green production and consumption in communities.

The moderating role of situational context in the effects of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) on online purchase intention through brand image has found sparse empirical support. This study thus aims to examine whether situational context affects the direction and strength of the relationships between aspects of eWOM and brand image that lead to online purchase intention.

To extend the existing research, the authors tested the model using a sample of 546 online shoppers during the fourth wave of COVID-19 in Ho Chi Minh City. Specifically, the testing of the direct relationships and the mediating role of brand image occurred using measurement and structural models. The authors then created a moderated mediation model to examine the moderating role of situational context. Furthermore, the authors probed the interactions by identifying changes in the relationships from eWOM to online purchase intention through a brand image at different levels of situational context.

Without situational context’s moderating effect, brand image positively partially mediated the influence of either eWOM credibility or quantity on intention. Situational context’s moderating effect then explains why high- versus low-level disease-avoidance customers seek less eWOM credibility and more eWOM quantity to develop brand images and shape their intentions.

The findings have theoretical implications for understanding the pressure of disease avoidance on customers’ online purchase intentions. Among the practical implications of the research are tactics for profit and non-profit purposes.