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Purpose This study aims to explore the customers’ behaviour towards online shopping during COVID-19 in a Muslim country and proposes a co-creative service design for online businesses (webstore) in the post-COVID-19 era. Design/methodology/approach The study used a qualitative design for collecting the data where in-depth interviews from 18 customers were conducted following the qualitative design protocol. Due to the limitation of physical distancing, the interviews were conducted online using Microsoft teams. Findings Based on the findings, new potential services are proposed for webstores for customer engagement, the need for expansion of product lines and safety measures for customers and staff during and post-COVID-19 era. Following the findings, a co-creative service design is proposed for webstores to revamp the business during and post-COVID-19. Originality/value The study is unique because it has developed various unique strategic factors essential for revamping online businesses for better growth in post-COVID-19. The proposed new co-creative service design model for an online service provider is expected to create customers engagement and loyalty during and in post-COVID-19.

This paper empirically investigates the impact of overall sustainability reporting as well as its components (economic, environmental, and social sustainability reporting) on the cost of debt and equity capital for Malaysian oil and gas companies. The data was collected from 41 publicly listed oil and gas companies in Malaysia for the period from 2008 to 2017. Qualitative information was gathered for sustainability reporting and then converted into quantitative form by assigning weights according to the extent of reporting. The cost of capital information was sourced through Thomson Reuters Datastream. Panel data analysis was employed using generalized least square (GLS) random effects regression to examine the relationship between sustainability reporting and cost of capital. Firm reputation, size, and profitability were included as control variables. The findings indicate that overall sustainability reporting and one component, economic sustainability reporting, reduce both cost of debt and cost of equity. However, environmental sustainability reporting reduces only the cost of debt but does not reduce the cost of equity. Social sustainability reporting shows no effect on the cost of debt or equity. The findings of this paper should be useful for regulators, legislators, shareholders, creditors, and practitioners in pursuing sustainability practices that not only improve economic and environmental performance but also enhance overall performance by reducing the cost of capital. The results of the paper highlight that companies investing in sustainability can generate positive value through the enhancement of reputational capital. This study is the first to empirically investigate the relationship between overall sustainability reporting, including its three components, and the cost of both debt and equity capital.

Purpose In the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic, organizations now are expected to serve customers who are highly conscious of safety and sanitation. Among others, the hospitality industry is significantly and negatively influenced by this pandemic. Given the unique characteristics of services, using advanced technology is not enough to create a memorable experience without physical interaction between service providers and customers. Thus, this study aims to define the “new normal” for service customers and to explore the “new service design” for the hotel industry. Design/methodology/approach As most of the Southeast Asian countries heavily rely on the tourism industry, this study focuses on one of the emerging tourism destinations in this region, Malaysia. The data is collected through in-depth interviews with 17 potential national and international tourists. Findings The results suggest that considering the “new normal” for customers, there is an immediate need for the hotel industry to revamp their service design by mainly practicing disinfection and sanitation activities, re-designing overall infrastructure and introducing promotional offers. Originality/value This study is novel in its kind as it provides useful guidelines for both practitioners and academicians/researchers. Under this crucial time, very few research is conducted specifically focusing on the hotel industry and tourists’ behaviors amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The study will provide in-depth knowledge about tourists’ expectations from the hotel services, especially in their own voices.

Software development is a cooperative process, which relies upon the integration of knowledge spread across various domains. The shift from the industrial economy toward a decentralized knowledge-based economy has given knowledge more value and importance for organizations, which operate globally. Management of knowledge sharing activities becomes challenging and complex, specifically when operating in a globally distributed organization. The impact of “personal factors” and “environmental factors” on software developers with regard to knowledge sharing behavior in global software development organizations is an important subject, which is still not well discussed. The social cognitive theory has been utilized in the formation of the conceptual model with a focus on knowledge sharing behavior. This paper examines the impact of key factors, including “time zone difference,” “geographic distance,” “linguistic distance,” “trust,” “motivation,” and “social interaction” on knowledge sharing behavior. Self-administrative postal and online questionnaire were used as the medium of data collection. It was found that “social interaction” had the strongest impact on knowledge sharing behavior.

Despite the high relevance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in service businesses, investigations of its influence on the cruise sector are scarce. Relying on institutional theory, this study proposes a model with cruise customers’ trust and identification as the key factors between CSR reputation and customers’ loyalty. Using data from 292 cruise customers, results support the impact of customers’ perceived CSR reputation of cruise companies on two relational constructs and loyal behavior. Only customers’ identification mediates the relationships between reputation and brand loyalty. Thus, findings suggest that cruise customers likely form high-level loyal behavior when they perceive companies’ CSR activities and their similarities with such companies. From these significant findings, the authors draw several theoretical and practical implications, including the importance of enhancing the company’s focus on its CSR reputations. This study also provides directions to promote identity strengths for enhancing the impact of CSR reputation on company performance.

The study aims to investigate the factors that contribute to children’s subjective well-being. We used playful-consumption experiences in children’s smartphone usage to determine their subjective well-being. In total, 210 valid responses were obtained from the parents and analyzed using PLS-SEM in SmartPLS 3.2.8. The results of the measurement model revealed that the investigated constructs were reliable and valid. The findings based on the structural model revealed that children’s emotional involvement, enjoyment, and sensory experiences with smartphones positively influenced their subjective well-being. However, children’s fantasy, escapism, arousal, and role-projection experiences with smartphones failed to impact children’s subjective well-being. The study is among the pioneers to investigate children’s subjective well-being from the perspective of smartphone usage and playful-consumption experiences.

The study examines the critical role of customer experience in determining hotel brand loyalty and the moderating role of gender, loyalty card membership, age, and critical incident recovery in this relationship. Based on a sample of 408 hotel guests and employing structural equation modeling approach, dimensions that comprise ‘customer experience with hotel brands’—hotel location, hotel staff competence, hotel stay, and ambience, hotel website and social media, and guest-to-guest experience—are found to have relative effects on hotel brand loyalty. The results contribute to hospitality realm by suggesting the moderating effect of gender, loyalty card membership, age, and critical incident recovery on customer experience-loyalty relationship. Implications for managerial practice and theory are discussed together with limitations and further research directions.

This study is conducted to explore the impact of creativity on yield management in the hotel industry of Pakistan. Quantitative data approach was used and data was gathered through a close-ended questionnaire by using a stratified sampling technique from 128 professionals (sample size) working in five stars, four stars and three stars hotels in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Findings indicate that the overall creativity has a significant impact on yield management and creativity is likely to emerge if employees are given a tension free environment, support by the management, rewards against successive creative ideas and opportunity for ideas sharing. Since the hotel industry in Pakistan is undergoing a process of increased competition, the adoption and implementation of yield management is therefore, identified as a very essential tool for survival. It has also been observed that, for proper yield management implementation, the hotel industry needs to focus on employees' creativity.