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In a world where different communication technologies support social connection, managing unavailability is as important as, if not more important than, managing availability. The need to manage unavailability becomes increasingly critical when users employ several communication tools to interact with various ties. A person's availability information disclosure may depend on different social relationships and the technologies used by the person. The study contributes to the literature by drawing on privacy management theory to investigate how users practice availability management and use its deceptive form, which is sometimes called a butler lie, with various ties across different messaging applications (apps) as part of their online privacy. Relevant factors in mediated communication, including facework, common ground, and interpersonal trust, are included in the developed model.

The authors conducted an online survey (n = 475) to explore the relationship between one's contact with different interactants (significant others, family members, close friends, acquaintances, groups of friends, and groups of acquaintances) and one's practice of availability management and use of butler lies with these interactants at different size levels on various messaging apps.

Factors such as facework, privacy related to technology, and privacy related to social relationships affect the practice of availability management and the use of butler lies. Notably, butler lies are used most frequently with acquaintances and groups of acquaintances and least frequently with significant others. Moreover, the practice of availability management and the use of butler lies are negatively moderated by people's conversational grounding and trust.

The study examined the practice of cross-app availability management with diverse social ties on mobile technologies, which is a socio-informatic practice that is widely adopted in the contemporary digital landscape but on which limited scientific and theoretic research has been conducted. No research has directly investigated users' availability management across multiple apps from a relational perspective. Building on the theoretical framework of privacy management, the paper aims to bridge the gap in the relevant literature. The results of this study can serve as a reference for library professionals to develop information literacy programs according to users' availability management needs. The results also provide insights to system designers for developing messaging tools.

Coping behaviors are a popular area of research in relation to construction professionals, who are often compelled to face a great deal of stress while striving for good performance in a dynamic and demanding industry. The effectiveness of various coping behaviors on stress and performance of construction professionals have long been identified. However, factors associating with individual adoption of various coping behaviors are still uncertain. People from different cultural environments have different values and hence different preferences for coping strategies, which have different effects on construction professionals. Hence, the papers’ primary contribution to the overall body of knowledge is the establishment of statistical evidence that desired cultural values of construction professionals can influence their adoption of coping behaviors. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A questionnaire survey was designed and conducted to investigate the relationships between cultural values and coping behaviors of construction professionals in Hong Kong (HK). Surveys were distributed to 500 HK construction professionals by fax, e-mail, or personal contact. Of these, 139 were returned, giving a response rate of 28.0 percent. Based on the data collected, a series of systematic statistical analyses, including factor analyses, regression analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM), were conducted using SPSS 15.0 and Lisrel 8.5.

Based on the results of factor analyses and regression analysis, a SEM was developed which reveals the following: first, interpersonal integration triggers planful problem solving; second, a disciplined work ethos triggers positive reappraisal and alleviates emotional discharge; and third, interpersonal integration triggers a disciplined work ethos. A series of personal-, interpersonal-, task-, and organizational-level recommendations are given on how to encourage construction stakeholders to adopt adaptive coping behaviors through cultivating their cultural values.

The current study adopted a series of systematic analysis approaches to provide empirical support of how Chinese values of construction professionals predict their adoption of various coping behaviors in the dynamic and stressful industry. Since different coping behaviors have different impact on performance of construction professionals, the findings provide indications for future studies on enhancing performance through the cultivation of various cultural values and the coping behaviors they thereby adopt.

The sudden pandemic of COVID-19 has caused disruptive innovation in all areas of business including education. Despite the educators’ and students’ acceptance and readiness in the new normal, the traditional face-to-face (FTF) public speaking has been shifted to online courses to suit the current needs. This study aims to examine whether there were differences between online and FTF pubic speaking in the students’ anxiety level, speech performance, as well as their perceptions of the challenges in the implementation of online public speaking courses as a potential to disruptive innovation.

This pilot study was a mixed method research that involved a purposive sampling of two groups of 39 students in higher education. The instruments used were questionnaires of self-report anxiety, speech performance test and observation.

The findings show that the students preferred the traditional FTF rather than the online mode for public speaking courses. The challenges of internet connection and the lack of a live audience were their main concerns in online public speaking. It also provides a potential for disruptive innovation that could take into consideration of a live audience in university online courses.

This study provides the potential of public speaking course as a disruptive innovation. This brings implications for the innovators, marketers and educators to think of the online courses/programmes that can be best implemented while embracing the changes and the new normal of COVID-19 brings for student learning.

Collaborative information searching is common for people when planning their group trip. However, little research has explored how tourists collaborate during information search. Existing tourism Web portals or search engines rarely support tourists’ collaborative information search activities. Taking advantage of previous studies of collaborative tourism information search behavior, in the current paper the purpose of this paper is to propose the design of a collaborative search system collaborative tourism information search (ColTIS) to support online information search and travel planning.

ColTIS was evaluated and compared with Google Talk-embedded Tripadvisor.com through a user study involving 18 pairs of participants. The data included pre- and post-search questionnaires, web search logs and chat history. For quantitative measurement, statistical analysis was performed using SPSS; for log data and the qualitative feedback from participants, the content analysis was employed.

Results suggest that collaborative query formulation, division of search tasks, chatting and results sharing are important means to facilitate tourists’ collaborative search. ColTIS was found to outperform Tripadvisor significantly regarding the ease of use, collaborative support and system usefulness.

The innovation of the study lies in the development of an integrated real-time collaborative tourism information search system with unique features. These features include collaborative query reformulation, travel planner and automatic result and query sharing that assist multiple people search for holiday information together. For system designers and tourism practitioners, implications are provided.

More people share their tourism experiences on social media today than in the past, and as a result, more people follow these posts in their trip planning. However, studies into tourists' intention to follow such posts are scarce. Therefore, this study investigates the antecedents influencing social media users' intentions to follow tourism-related posts (TRPs) when planning their trips.

Questionnaires were collected from 402 social media users who had followed TRPs for their trip planning. Data were then analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and artificial neural networks.

The authors found that blogger–user fit and users' involvement with TRPs influenced behavior components (attitudes toward TRPs and intention to follow TRPs) via assessment components (bloggers' credibility and content quality), and the authors developed a framework to explain this relationship.

The findings advance prior studies by investigating (1) the antecedents of intention to follow TRPs when trip planning, (2) the two main social media elements – bloggers and posts – to understanding the role of social media on travel behavior and (3) involvement with TRPs and their impacts on travel behavior. This study contributes to the research on social media and tourism marketing and proposes practical indications for bloggers, social media platforms and destination marketing organizations.

Drawing on psychological contract (PC) theory and platform labor research, the purpose of our study was to explore gig workers’ reactions to perceived PC violation. Our study was set against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought workplace health and safety issues into much sharper focus, even in nonstandard employment arrangements like gig work.

This study employed a mixed-methods design. In Study 1, we tested a conceptual model of US-based ride-hail drivers’ (n = 202) affective and cognitive reactions to Uber’s (lack of) commitment to safe working conditions. In Study 2, we conducted interviews with 32 platform workers to further explore an unexpected finding from Study 1.

In Study 1, we found that drivers’ perceptions of PC violation were related to decreased trust in Uber and higher intentions to leave this line of work; however, cynicism toward Uber only predicted withdrawal intentions for those drivers who did not believe that they had job alternatives available outside of gig work. We explored this further in Study 2, where we found that workers with low economic dependence on gig work could afford to be casually cynical toward the platform, while high-dependence workers felt “trapped” in this line of work.

We contribute to the social/relational theoretical approach to gig work more broadly and to the literature on PC in platform work more specifically. We also add to the emerging literature on how economic dependence shapes workers’ experience of platform work. Our findings around low-dependence gig workers experiencing a more indifferent form of cynicism – which we have termed casual cynicism – highlight the importance of treating the context of gig work as unique, not merely an extension of traditional management research.

Today’s MNCs need to adopt smart ways of organizing to tap into the potential of their complex internal and external relationships. This requires MNCs to identify the relevant relationships and to develop appropriate relational skills and capabilities. Hence this chapter addresses two key questions: what kind of relational structures and qualities are conducive to value creation, and how can MNCs best develop and utilize their complex relationships?

The chapter reviews the main developments in the area of MNC organizing to date. Subsequently three examples of novel on-going research into MNC relationships are presented. Finally avenues for future research and links to related areas in international business research are discussed.

The relational perspective on the MNC is well-established. Past research, however, has mostly taken the view of the headquarters-subsidiary dyad without fully conceptualizing the multiplicity of relationships and interdependencies of individuals, groups, and units in the MNC. This chapter uncovers the relational skills required to improve MNC value creation abilities by influencing and leveraging connections among disparate units and individuals to tap their expertise and creative potential. This includes insights into abilities for managing and balancing multiple networks, abilities for mobilizing relevant network actors when driving bottom-up processes, and abilities for facilitating connections and collaboration among different actors.

This chapter advances the understanding and practice of multinational organizing. It presents novel ways to systematically address the complexities and interdependencies of relational effects on the ability of MNCs to create value.

The paper provides an overview of material helpful in placing the subsequent papers in context, as well as a summary of the research contributions made by the individual papers themselves.

We begin with a timeline of China’s Economic Reform, including both major events that permitted the opening and expansion of the nation’s economy, and important milestones of the historical movement. We then consider the impact of philosophy and culture (particularly, Confucianism and socialism) on China’s society and government, which leads naturally to certain observations regarding the political-economic model in which state-owned enterprises play a central role. In the final section, we briefly summarize the contents of the remaining papers.

This article was based on the information from The 5th International Conference of Institutes and Libraries for Chinese Overseas Studies held in the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, Canada in which the author was a presenter in session 4.2.9a of the Early life of Yuan Shikai and the formation of Yuan family. The paper aims to include comprehensive analysis and development of the history of Chinese migration. An annotated bibliography of suggested readings was offered to highlight the subject knowledge for further research in this area.

The paper includes comprehensive analysis and development of the history of Chinese migration and the experiences and family histories of overseas Chinese in Canada. An annotated bibliography of suggested readings was offered to highlight the subject knowledge for further research in this area.

The paper offers full description and comprehensive analysis of the history of Chinese migration and overseas Chinese studies in Canada. A bbibliography of suggested readings was offered for further research in this area.

This research study has a strong subject focus on Chinese migration, overseas Chinese studies, and resource-sharing in the subject area. It is a specific field for research in Asian studies.

The result of this study will assist students, researchers, and the general public in the area of overseas Chinese studies and developing their interests in the social and historical value of Chinese migration history and resource-sharing in the area.

Very little research has been done in the area of Chinese migration and historical development. The paper would offer historians, sociologists, ethnologists, librarians, administrations, professors, as well as students in the fields of Asian history, anthropology, sociology, political science, geography, and other Asian-related interdisciplinary studies.