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Rural tourism has emerged as one of the potential economic contributors to the country’s economic growth. To this extent, tourism stakeholders are aware of the rural tourism destination competitiveness where the development should be aligned with the objectives to achieve destination competitive advantage. Given the importance of studying factors that contribute to the development of rural tourism competitive advantage, the present study aimed to propose a research framework by identifying six predictors from the local community based on their experiential knowledge.

Data were gathered through a structured questionnaire survey where 144 respondents comprising local communities from Kampung Semadang – Borneo Heights, Sarawak, Malaysia – were involved. To assess the developed model, SmartPLS 2.0 (M3) was applied based on path modelling (measurement model assessment) followed by bootstrapping analysis (structural model assessment).

Interestingly, the findings revealed that the communities believed economic, socio-cultural and environmental impacts significantly contributes to the development of rural tourism competitive advantage. Additionally, communities from Kampung Semadang viewed that both community knowledge and support for tourism greatly affect the development of rural tourism destination competitive advantage. Surprisingly, there was no significant relationship between stakeholder involvement and rural tourism competitive advantage.

From a practical point of view, the findings of the study provide valuable information to tourism stakeholders and policy planners about the importance of tri-dimensional tourism impacts, as well as community knowledge and support in the development of rural tourism destination competitive advantage. In line with policy development or planning for rural tourism development, the tourism stakeholders should pay more concern on the tri-dimensional impacts, the importance of community knowledge about tourism and gaining the community support for tourism development to achieve the goal of competitiveness.

There is lack of study in investigating the development of rural tourism competitive advantage with a holistic framework. This paper studies the intended or unintended economic, socio-cultural and environmental impacts triggered by the tourism activities. This study has also investigated the local communities’ knowledge and supports toward tourism as the community efforts determine the success of a destination management, especially in the rural area. Stakeholder involvement was also examined as the collaboration among relevant parties to create competitive advantage is essential to achieve sustainable rural tourism.

This study aims to investigate the interplay between artificial intelligence (AI) integration, organizational digital culture, human resource management (HRM) practices and employee sustainable performance in luxury hotels in Malaysia. It seeks to elucidate how AI adoption influences organizational dynamics, shapes HRM practices and impacts employee sustainable performance over time.

Using a quantitative approach, survey questionnaires derived from prior research were utilized. Analysis using G*Power software determined an appropriate sample size, with psychometric evaluation validating scale development. Statistical analyses using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 28.0 and SmartPLS 4 confirmed data reliability and validity.

Out of the five hypotheses, three were supported. A positive relationship was found between AI adoption and employee sustainable performance, highlighting AI’s potential to enhance productivity and job satisfaction. However, the relationship between AI adoption and organizational digital culture was not supported. On the other hand, HRM practices positively influenced employee sustainable performance. In addition, organizational digital culture was positively associated with employee sustainable performance, underscoring the role of digital fluency in driving workforce productivity. Conversely, AI failed to moderate the relationship between HRM practices and employee sustainable performance.

The study’s focus on luxury hotels in Malaysia and its reliance on cross-sectional data, suggesting the need for longitudinal designs and diverse organizational contexts in future research. Comparative studies across sectors and countries could offer insights into variations in AI adoption practices and their impact on organizational performance.

This study contributes to theoretical frameworks by empirically examining complex relationships between AI integration, HRM practices, organizational digital culture and employee performance, emphasizing the importance of considering organizational context and cultural factors in understanding the implications of AI adoption for sustainable performance enhancement.

This study aims to examine the relationship between public knowledge, awareness and attitudes towards post-COVID-19 infection prevention in Sarawak. At present, Sarawak is in the post-pandemic stage, marked by a gradual return to normalcy, albeit with some persistent changes caused by the pandemic.

Data were collected from various geographic areas in Sarawak through a Google Form link and QR code during a cross-sectional study, resulting in the acquisition of 1,128 responses. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 28.0 and WarpPLS 8.0.

The result revealed that out of five hypotheses, four were found to be supported, indicating a positive relationship between public knowledge, awareness and attitudes towards COVID-19 infection prevention. However, an unsupported relationship was found between public awareness and infection prevention practices.

This study is limited to the Malaysian population and has a cross-sectional design, affecting generalizability. It is recommended that future research complete an in-depth study of the knowledge, awareness and practices of COVID-19 using other data collection techniques.

Public health and policymakers can use the study to implement effective communication strategies and prioritize digitalization for economic recovery. It highlights the importance of preventive measures and the public’s role in managing future pandemics.

The originality of this research can be drawn from key findings that indicate that people overall gained knowledge on the prevention measures during the post-COVID-19 pandemic, and the accuracy of the information significantly impacts public knowledge, awareness and practices of COVID-19 infection prevention.

This study aims to investigate how over-the-top (OTT) media services affect consumers’ demands for value, convenience, visual experience and their ability to advance media communications. This study also examines the constructs that impact viewers’ satisfaction and subsequently lead to continuance usage intention of OTT platforms. Using the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model as the theoretical basis, the present study constructs include content quality, accessibility, entertainment, hedonic value, attitude, satisfaction and continuance usage intention of OTT platforms.

The responses were collected from 1,280 OTT platform users in Malaysia through online questionnaires. This study aimed to examine the perceptions of OTT viewers towards their satisfaction and continuance usage intention of the respective platforms. The study used a quantitative approach, and the relationships among the study constructs were assessed using partial least squares – structural equation modelling.

The present study found that the content quality and accessibility were significant in determining OTT viewers’ perceived hedonic value and attitude, which subsequently led to their satisfaction and continuance usage intention of OTT platforms. Additionally, it was identified that satisfaction had a substantial influence on viewers’ continuance usage intention of OTT platforms.

This study uses the SOR model to determine the relationships among OTT platform characteristics, hedonic value, attitude, satisfaction and continuance intention.

This paper proposes an extended model based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) developed by Venkatesh et al. To help better explain the intention to use an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

Findings from the literature review reveal that various technology acceptance models have been introduced in the past two decades. However, there are new research models that lack empirical study. With the research model proposed above, further study could be carried out to gauge whether this model can better explain end‐users' intentions to use an ERP system.

The review shows that although there has been research conducted using the UTAUT model, it has not decomposed the facilitating conditions as the authors suggest in this paper, which will be useful for intervention purposes.

Since this paper suggests a conceptual model based on a literature review, it is suggested that further study could be carried out to test whether this model can better explain end‐users' intentions to use ERP systems.

The review shows that shared beliefs, project communication and training can be used to offer intervention measures to help in the adoption and usage of ERP.

What this paper proposes is to drop the voluntariness variable from the model as a moderating factor, justifying this exclusion based on the fact that an ERP system implementation is mandatory and there is little room for the employees to oppose once the system is implemented. The authors also suggest further decomposing the facilitating condition into three components, namely shared beliefs, project communication and training can help in the design of intervention measures.

The main aim of this paper is to review the contribution made by this theme issue in responding to the strategic question: “How do we develop more sustainable and responsible rural tourism by benchmarking innovations and new practices in Asia?”

A content analysis of the papers was undertaken to learn from best practices within and outside Asia. Structured questions were used to enable the theme editors to reflect on the rationale for the theme issue question, the starting point and the nature of the contribution made by the writing team.

This summary highlights the most significant outcomes in terms of the contributions to knowledge and/or professional practice, and also the implications for management action and applied research arising from the review of best practices in Asian countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, The Philippines, Vietnam, Korea, India, China and Chinese Taipei. Some of the innovative approaches that can be adopted by Asia from non-Asian countries, namely, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Lesotho and Poland, are also presented.

This paper outlines the challenges and new approaches needed in managing and developing rural tourism initiatives that have been established in other countries.

This paper explores the extent to which the lessons and innovative approaches discussed in this theme issue could be replicated and applied in countries that are developing rural tourism.

Building on social exchange theory, this paper aims to hypothesize the direct impact of mentoring on employees' job satisfaction.

A survey method was used to gather the information that was required in this study to examine the relationship between mentoring and employees' job satisfaction among employees from small and medium enterprises in Malaysia. A total of 200 questionnaires were sent out to executives of the middle and lower management level from the 21 selected small and medium enterprises. A total of 156 Malaysian executives participated.

The results show that there was a positive relationship between career mentoring and all dimensions in job satisfaction such as co‐workers, job itself, promotion and supervisors. On the other hand, no significant relationship was found between psychosocial mentoring and three aspects of employees' job satisfaction, namely co‐workers, job itself, and promotion.

This study has helped to establish a foundation for the study of job satisfaction and mentoring. The foundation established has generated more knowledge and arguments on mentoring in the workplace to enhance performance. This paper contributes to the literature on the relationship between mentoring and employees' job satisfaction.

Considering the potential cascading effect that a good relationship can have on subordinates' job satisfaction, the paper shows that previous researches may have underestimated the impact of mentoring on job satisfaction.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the importance of rural communities’ participation in the management of tourism development.

A case study was conducted at the Katse and Mohale Tourism Development Area of Lesotho. This study was conducted in three villages adjacent to the Ts’ehlanyane Nature Reserve: Ha ‘Mali, Bokong Nature Reserve; Ha Lejone and Liphofung Nature Reserve; and Phelandaba using a mixed method design. In-depth interviews were conducted with Conservation Committee Forum members, and a survey was conducted on various stakeholders that included local rural communities, local authorities, nature reserve managers, tourism officers and environmental/conservation officers.

Respondents from all three villages (Ha Lejone, Ha ‘Mali and Phelandaba) shared the same preference of greater community involvement and decision-making power in the management of tourism. Ha ‘Mali and Ha Lejone respondents recognised community members’ participation but the Phelandaba respondents generally disagreed that the communities were involved in management, as they indicated not being consulted in any planning about tourism.

This study concluded that governments should not merely set aside conservation areas or construct tourist destinations in rural areas but should also empower local communities to participate in all stages of planning, developing and managing the tourism venture. Involving community members in the formulation of supporting tourism regulations, implementation, monitoring and evaluation procedures would be beneficial for sustainable development of rural tourism. Building partnership amongst all tourism-related stakeholders in rural tourism management is an ideal tool for promoting rural tourism.

Although the case study specifically referred to KMTD, the information gathered was used to formulate a model of the elements influencing rural tourism benefit-sharing processes from the perspective of a rural local community.

This article seeks to examine the impact of shared beliefs concerning the benefits of enterprise resource planning (ERP) among executives and engineers in the northern region of Malaysia.

Respondents comprise managers in the departments of production control, production, materials, engineering and information technology, and executives within the organization, who are cognizant of the ERP implementation. A questionnaire was sent to managers in 113 manufacturing organizations. A total of 69 responses was received, all of which were used in the analysis.

The findings support the notion that systems or technologies, which are perceived to be easy to use and understand, will be viewed as more useful from the end‐user's perspective. In addition, perceived ease of use (PEU) was found to mediate partially the effects of shared beliefs concerning the usefulness of the ERP system.

This study provides evidence that the level of managerial support, in terms of shared beliefs about the benefits of ERP, is critical in increasing the level of PEU and perceived usefulness.

There is a gap in the literature concerning what influences these two salient beliefs. Thus, this paper examines the impact of shared beliefs on the perceived usefulness and ease of use of an ERP system in a developing country.