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This paper explores the optimal homing policy of a manufacturer who sells products through two competing platforms: a traditional online platform and a social commerce platform. The social platform can choose to operate with reselling or agency selling format. Through analysis, we first find that the manufacturer's optimal decision regarding whether to single- or multi-home and the social platform's optimal decision regarding whether to adopt reselling or agency selling format depend mainly on the intensity of the downstream competition and the platforms' market sizes. Specifically, the manufacturer prefers single-homing if the competition intensity is relatively low and the traditional platform's market size is relatively large. When the competition intensity increases (decreases), the agency selling (reselling) format is always the social platform's preferred choice. Next, we find that the manufacturer is less likely to choose multi-homing (single-homing) and the social platform is more likely to select agency selling (reselling) format when the traditional platform serves as a marketplace rather than a reseller. Finally, numerical studies show that the manufacturer's and the platforms' preferences for selling modes are always misaligned. However, an all-win situation is achieved with the pure agency selling mode when the competition intensity is relatively high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the labor market in Germany. It raises concerns about job displacement and wealth disparities, comparing the situation to the historical "Engels' pause" during the Industrial Revolution. While Germany has not yet seen significant wealth inequalities due to AI, there is evidence of an AI-induced Engels' pause, with digital skills becoming increasingly important and AI adoption in the workplace increasing. The article also discusses the challenges faced by migrant workers, power imbalances, and Germany's regulatory approach to AI in the workplace. It highlights the upcoming EU Platform Work Directive and the differing interests of employers' organizations and trade unions in governing AI-driven tools. The potential impacts of AI on labor markets, including inequality and precarious work, are also explored. The article concludes by emphasizing the need for strong policy interventions to address socioeconomic challenges and promote fairness and inclusion in the digitalized world of work. [Extracted from the article]

South Korea is a technologically advanced country with a strong digital infrastructure and manufacturing sector. The government prioritizes promoting AI technology over regulating it, while workers have concerns about AI-related issues. The Korean business system is hierarchical, with the government and families playing significant roles. The country has active labor unions that have been growing recently. The government supports AI development through investments, but the effectiveness of these initiatives is debated. The regulatory framework on AI in Korea is similar to the EU's but more business-friendly in certain aspects. The text discusses the relationship between AI governance and worker mobilization, highlighting incidents that led to updates in AI regulations. It explores the unionization of knowledge workers and precarious workers subject to algorithmic control, as well as resistance against job-replacing AI-assisted manufacturing technologies. The challenges faced by labor movements and the role of social partnership are also discussed. The Korean government invests in AI technologies, while workers organize to address the challenges of the AI-driven economy. The expansion of data subjects' rights may provide gig workers with opportunities to resist algorithmic control, but the long-term impact on Korean industrial relations is uncertain. [Extracted from the article]

Consumers' growing awareness of environmental protection and carbon regulations enacted by the government based on strengthened environmental pressure are forcing manufacturers to curb carbon emissions. This paper considers a manufacturer investing in green technology to reduce carbon emissions under the cap-and-trade regulation, selling products to consumers through a direct channel and an online retail platform. The platform could choose to operate either in an agency mode or a reselling mode. A three-stage game is constructed to examine the interactions between the manufacturer's investment and the platform's operation mode under the cap-and-trade regulation, as well as the influences of the regulation on the interactions, and the supply chain coordination. The findings suggest that green technology investment in either operation mode leads to Pareto improvement in profits of both the platform and the manufacturer, and the investment induces the platform to prefer the reselling mode. Besides, the cap-and-trade regulation encourages the platform to opt for the agency mode, while the investment could mitigate the influence of the regulation on the platform's mode choice, with greater investment efficiency resulting in better mitigation. Furthermore, the investment could induce supply chain coordination under two modes through two different contracts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumers' dramatic demand has a pernicious effect throughout the supply chain. It exacerbates inventory distortion because of significant revenue loss caused by stock-level issues. Despite the availability of several forecasting techniques, large organisations, manufacturing firms, and e-commerce websites collectively lose around $1.8 trillion annually to inventory distortion. If this problem is solved, sales may increase by 10.3 percent. The businesses are concerned about mitigating this loss. Artificial intelligence (AI) can play a significant role in building resilient supply chains. However, developing AI models consumes time and cost. In this paper, we propose a No Code Artificial Intelligence (NCAI) enabling non-technical companies to build machine learning models based on production quantity and inventory replenishment. The development of the NCAI model is fast and inexpensive. However, little research deals with applying NCAI to operations and supply chain problems. Addressing the existing gap, we show the application of NCAI in the retail industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new trend in influencer marketing is livestream commerce, which combines influencers' live video streaming with e-commerce. Little is known, though, about how firms should develop their influencer strategies to maximize product sales. Given a budget constraint, marketers may choose to employ a single, "big" influencer with a large number of followers or several small influencers. They may also employ a combination of both big and small influencers when their budget is adequate. Analyzing data from 1.3 million livestreams on TikTok, the authors find a negative interaction effect between big and small influencers when employed together due to decreased trust in big influencers and substitution effects. Further analysis reveals that livestream sales generated by a big influencer are adversely affected by small influencers who promoted the same product previously, but not the other way around. In addition, big influencers can reach a much larger audience, whereas small influencers are more effective at increasing the audience's conversion rates. Big and small influencers are also different in terms of how product and campaign characteristics moderate their sales effectiveness. Finally, the scenario analysis explores how the profitability of influencer strategies hinges on the influencer mix and their costs. This research is one of the first to investigate the sales effectiveness of influencer marketing and to provide general guidelines for developing influencer mix strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a special issue of the International Journal of Production Research focused on service-oriented manufacturing supply chain management in the context of Industry 4.0. Service-oriented manufacturing (SOM) is an emerging paradigm where manufacturers transform their products into platforms using Industry 4.0 technologies, allowing for communication between customers and manufacturers. This shift enhances the flow of information through the supply chain and creates new operational challenges. The special issue includes 16 articles covering various sub-areas such as mechanism design, supply chain contracts, behavioural modelling, emerging business models, optimisation techniques, product design, and smart manufacturing. The papers provide insights and practical applications to advance service-oriented manufacturing supply chain management in the Industry 4.0 era. [Extracted from the article]

With the fierce competition in e-commerce, e-tailers are required to rapid responses to a variety of customised orders with multiple frequencies and strict delivery times. The delay or insufficient supply caused by disruptions might result in lost sales during long-term processes. To address this problem, a two-stage stochastic programming model considering profits, consumer service level (CSL) as well as market priorities is developed to manage long-term disruptions. We analyse multi-period consumer transaction data and formulate geographical relevance (GR) to link each marketplace with historical data in related regions and then prioritise market segments. A GR-based two-stage stochastic programming with multi-period is proposed, which (1) considers both proactive mitigation decisions before disruption and reactive recovery plans after disruption; (2) collaborates three resilience strategies; (3) optimises the e-tailer's profits considering market priorities during long-term disruptions. Using a real case of Chinese e-commerce under the COVID-19 pandemic, it is illustrated (1) the applicability and performance of the proposed GR-based model for multi-period resilience optimisation improving both the CSL and the total profit; (2) the efficiency and robustness of the developed sequential particle swarm optimisation with social structures algorithm. The proposed method could optimise e-tailers' response strategies for managing long-term disruptions in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with the rapid growth of online purchasing, more and more e-retailers tend to adopt the front warehouse mode to improve the performance of customer service by locating multiple front warehouses with limited space and storage capacity closer to consumers. In this context, order splitting and distribution become increasingly crucial decisions that might impact the efficiency of order fulfillment. These two issues are investigated in the related works commonly as two independent problems, although they are inherently coupled with each other. This study established an integrated optimization model for order splitting and distribution routing for the front warehouse mode e-retailing. The model considers practical features, including order splitting constraints based on product type and quantity, finite inventory, heterogeneous vehicle routing constraints, and time windows. A branch-price-and-cut algorithm is proposed to solve the problem. Two logic-based Benders cuts are designed to deal with the infeasible distribution routes. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm is verified in an experimental study by considering CPLEX and two heuristic algorithms as benchmark methods. The dominance of our proposed algorithm is observed, especially for large-scale cases. The impacts of overlapping inventory levels, the combination of heterogeneous vehicles, and the width of time windows are also examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumers' perception of product value when purchasing is a critical issue relative to online platform commerce. This is especially true when the brand manufacturer authorises only a third-party reseller to sell through the platform, a practice that may provide opportunities to counterfeiters. To address this issue, we establish a theoretical model in which one brand manufacturer wholesales its products to a third-party reseller who then sells through an online platform. The platform acts as a marketplace, while multiple counterfeiters also exist on the platform, which may deceive consumers. In particular, we consider that the manufacturer can encroach with a direct channel and that the platform can adopt blockchain technology to help consumers identify authenticity. The results show that the platform could induce the brand manufacturer to encroach by deploying blockchain technology. Furthermore, an interesting result indicates that although either manufacturer encroachment or blockchain technology used alone can effectively boycott counterfeits, the coexistence of two strategies can raise the demand for counterfeit products. Finally, we find that when the brand manufacturer encroaches on the platform and the platform adopts blockchain technology, the brand manufacturer, platform, reseller and social welfare can achieve Pareto improvement, while the consumer surplus may be worse off. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aware of the power of platform firms and the risks of the platform economy, governments are reconsidering the dominant laissez faire approach in favour of strategies that regulate the power of platform firms. transnational dynamics play an important role in shaping emerging national regimes, but we argue that governments are also influenced by three factors that operate primarily at domestic level: the agency of platform firms, the impact of first-mover US platforms, and domestic politics. We illustrate our approach through an analysis of the trajectories and regulatory measures of four economies: the US, the EU, China, and India. As governance efforts expand to emerging technologies such as AI, our analysis presages broader changes to the structure of what was, with a few important exceptions, a relatively borderless global online economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PurposeMethodology/approachFindingsResearch implicationsOriginality/value/contributionPractical implicationsLive streaming e-commerce is an emerging e-commerce model within the realm of the mobile Internet, based on video-centric social media interaction. However, there is currently a lack of in-depth research on live streaming from a business perspective and the impact of product selection in live streaming on firm performance. To fill these gaps, the current study investigated how brand – consumer congruence moderates the influence of product selection in live streaming on firm performance and how this effect varies across retailers.The model and hypotheses were tested by applying partial least squares regression to data collected from 302 online retailers in the Chinese live streaming market.Product selection in live streaming had a significant positive impact on firm performance. Brand – consumer congruence in live rooms partially mediated the relationship between product selection and firm performance. Live room scenario matching and live room interaction had significant positive moderating effects on the main effect of product selection in live streaming on firm performance.The literature has focused on the impact of live streaming on customer purchase behavior. Few studies have explored the value of live streaming from a business-to-business marketing perspective. Our findings offer theoretical insights into the relationship between product selection and firm performance.This is the first study to examine the value of product selection in live streaming. In addition, it reveals how product selection affects firm performance through brand – consumer congruence.This study has implications for online retail managers based on the effect of product selection in live streaming on firm performance and the roles of brand – consumer congruence, interaction, and scenario in live streaming of business-to-business marketing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of sharing platforms in travel and tourism is an important transformation over the past two decades. An understanding of why some sharing economy platforms grow while others fail is an important area for travel and tourism research. Using transaction cost economics (TCE), we argue successful sharing platforms achieve both effective governance and monetization of transactions. This requires a shift from enthusiastic and committed bartering of passionate users towards a more systematic, integrated sharing platform, managed by a scaled travel or tourism corporation. The paper develops a framework explaining platform growth and offers recommendations on how transaction cost economizing and monetization can play complementary roles and can both improve platform growth and viability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing promotional imperatives have altered the balance between art and commerce, affecting the degree of musicians’ autonomy and control over their musical activities. To understand how promotional pressures affect independent grassroots musicians’ practices, this paper draws from the selling out debate and analyzes the pros and cons of online self-promotion. It argues that grassroots musicians rely on online platforms for promotion, but must do so according to conventions and expectations for self-promotion specific to the music worlds they operate in. Musicians who fail to do so risk being labeled show-offs, a criticism that carries negative connotations similar to accusations of selling out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: With the rise of social media and web technologies, users are increasingly spending time on browsing and purchasing on social commerce, particularly during idle moments of casual scrolling. Social commerce applications with sophisticated social features and security measures may tend to attract a significant number of highly engaged users. The purpose of this study is to find out whether customers will be interested in the content posted on the applications and generate impulse consumption when they are bored. Methods: Drawing on stimulus-organism-response framework, this paper explores how technical cues and situational cues affect impulse buying behavior in social commerce applications and the mediating impact of consumer-perceived values. Data were gathered from 395 respondents who frequently utilize and have shopping experience on social commerce applications. The PLS-SEM and fsQCA were applied to formulate and test the proposed hypotheses. Results: The results of PLS-SEM reveal technical cues (ease of use, visual appeal and security) and situational cues (passing time and serendipity) positively influenced impulse buying. The results of fsQCA offer six solutions of different combinations of constructs which can lead to high impulse buying. Discussion: These findings may extend existing research on impulse buying behavior and consumer psychology, offering valuable insights for marketers. They also point towards strategies for more effectively encouraging impulse purchase in digital retail environments, particularly among consumers who are browsing out of boredom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article in this journal will bring readers more specifically to university students to see easier access to money for additional living expenses. A new perspective when students are more specifically informatics students who are taught and nurtured so that they have skills and knowledge about program development not only live with money given by parents, but with money from the creation and development of their own programs or platforms. Access and dissemination of this journal will be expanded to make it more accessible and useful to all readers not only for informatics students but for prospective students and former students who have dived into the sea of computer code more specifically on the creation and development of programs or platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: We examined the prevalence of price promotions (i.e., proportion of products on price promotion) and the magnitude of price promotions (i.e., size of the price discount compared to the regular price) among online alcohol retailers. Methods: In August 2023, we web‐scraped product information for all alcoholic beverages available for sale in the online stores of two leading alcohol retailers in Sydney, Australia. Products were classified into five primary alcohol categories: wine, spirits, beer, cider and premix drinks. We considered three types of price promotion: temporary price discounts (e.g., 'was $5 now $4'), multi‐buy discounts (e.g., buy one get one free) and 'any six' discounts (e.g., 5% off when purchased in a bundle of any six similar products). The prevalence and mean magnitude of price promotions were estimated overall and by product category and price promotion type. Results: In total, data for 11,184 products were collected. Of these, 62% were the subject of at least one of the assessed forms of price promotion. The most frequently price‐promoted category was wine (91% of products), followed by spirits (35%), premix drinks (30%), cider (28%) and beer (21%). Of all price promotions, 61% were 'any six' discounts, 31% were temporary price discounts, and 7% were multi‐buy discounts. Across all price promotions, the mean magnitude of price discount relative to the regular price was 11% and ranged from less than 1% to 71%. Discussion and Conclusions: Policymakers should consider restricting price promotions as part of a suite of strategies to reduce alcohol‐related harms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted the world economy and health services, leading to fear, panic, and vulnerability among billions of people. Panic buying, observed in many countries, became a common phenomenon during the pandemic. However, there is still an incomplete understanding of how social media influences fear and consumer responses during such turmoil. This study aims to comprehend consumer experiences, thoughts, and emotions regarding the role of social media in driving panic buying behavior. Through an inductive thematic analysis of data from 30 consumers, the results reveal six key themes that highlight the impact of social networks on panic buying behavior during the COVID-19 crisis. These themes include the provision of evidence of uncertainty, social pressure, and social contagion; fostering interaction and discussion; facilitating the spread of messages and group thinking; the role of government communications; expert opinions; and the influence of social media influencers. This study contributes to existing theories by providing empirical evidence that supports the role of social media in generating consumer panic buying behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2021, the city of Barcelona made the controversial decision to prohibit short-term rentals of private rooms to tourists. The ban renewed the heated debate around the uses and functions of private property in the context of the contemporary tourist city, where the market of tourist accommodation has been significantly impacted by players such as Airbnb. This study aims to give an account of the controversy surrounding the ban on the short-term renting of private rooms in Barcelona by interpreting it as a reflection of the intrinsic conflicts of meanings operating in the tourist city. Accordingly, it maps and analyses the different positions voiced by the social actors involved in both the political urban arena and in the market. The main hypothesis of this work is that the controversy provoked by the decision to ban the shared homes listed by platforms such as Airbnb unmasks different ways to "make meaning of" structural issues such as urban life, housing and inequalities, tourism, digital labour and precariousness in the immediate post-pandemic scenario of the tourist city. From the epistemological point of view, the study relies on a semiotic perspective and critically analyses different textualities related to the debate around home sharing in Barcelona. These textualities articulate different themes and figures at a deeper axiological level where a clash of value systems takes place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social commerce, such as Instagram shopping – an innovative, global platform on which businesses offer their products and services – is attracting growing interest from both the academic community and the business world. Not least, this interest is due to the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic, with its associated restrictions on movement, prompted an upsurge in worldwide demand for social commerce. This study aims to determine whether consumer motivation mediates the association between recommendation and purchase intention toward Instagram commerce. Employing a mediation analysis, the work identifies consumer buying patterns on this platform by conducting a cross-sectional study on a sample comprising experienced Spanish Instagram users. This research provides valuable insights into the adoption of Instagram commerce, with implications for practitioners in the field of social commerce, especially in the Fashion context. The findings suggest that powerful recommendations will increase online shoppers' motivation to make purchases via this social network rather than other social commerce platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The establishment of a new outpatient pharmacy provided a strategic opportunity to repurpose and convert an existing outpatient pharmacy into a closed-door mail-order pharmacy within a health system. This article describes the steps taken to successfully make this change and evaluates the impact. Summary The mail-order pharmacy conversion project was divided into 3 phases: phase 1 (before conversion) from July through August 2022, phase 2 (conversion) from October through November 2022, and phase 3 (after conversion) from December 2022 through February 2023. Phase 1 included standardizing workflows with standard operating procedure (SOP) development, improving automation, determining staffing ratios, gathering baseline staff engagement data, and identifying primary and secondary outcomes of interest. Phase 2 encompassed SOP implementation and training of mail-order team members. Phase 3 involved evaluating available pharmacy floorspace, marketing mail-order services, and the second distribution of the staff engagement survey. The measured outcomes of this project were total prescription volumes, increase in total revenue, and staff engagement. Data collection was completed in phase 3. Conclusion The existing outpatient pharmacy was successfully converted to a closed-door pharmacy, and the associated prescription volume increased. Developing a strategic action plan to establish SOPs, calculate staffing performance metrics, and identify opportunities for growth and engaging frontline team members were essential to the success of this project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food as medicine (FAM) interventions have been associated with improved health outcomes. However, there is limited FAM evidence in food retail settings. The objective was to evaluate the feasibility of a registered dietitian nutritionist–led FAM program that aims to detect changes in participants' nutrition problems and related nutrition and health outcomes, as documented by the Nutrition Care Process framework. The study was a descriptive feasibility nutrition intervention cohort analysis. A convenience sample of online food shoppers were enrolled in collaboration with a food retail chain (n = 39 participants completed the intervention and were included in primary analyses). Participants received nutrition care for 6 months either in person or via telehealth. The FAM intervention included tailored nutrition care that integrated software-generated meal plans and food shopping lists to support online food shopping. Progress of nutrition problems and diet quality (assessed via the Picture your Plate survey) were measured. Measurements included changes in anthropometric and biochemical parameters, blood pressure, and quality of life (assessed via the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Health Related Quality of Life-14 survey). Mann-Whitney U test, Pearson's χ2, and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to detect differences. The most prevalent nutrition problems demonstrated improvement rates as follows: excessive energy intake, 81% (n = 21 of 26); excessive carbohydrate intake, 88% (n = 7 of 8); and obesity, 100% (n = 5 of 5). Exposure to the FAM intervention improved dietary quality, quality of life, body weight, waist circumference, and systolic pressure. FAM interventions can be carried out by in-store registered dietitian nutritionists in the supermarket setting. This feasibility study highlighted the need and opportunity for larger studies in which registered dietitian nutritionist–led FAM interventions, in collaboration with food retailers, may improve people's nutrition and health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing body of research on the platform economy provides a variety of interpretations of platform labor. Nevertheless, current studies have either placed exchange rather than production at the core of their interpretations or overlooked the historical continuity of the type of labor to which platform labor belongs. Employing a historical-comparative approach, this article introduces the concept of "cross-boundary subsumption" to illuminate the characteristics of platform labor. Drawing insights from investigations and interviews conducted on ride-hailing platforms in China from 2018 to 2020, this article delves into how cross-boundary subsumption works in reality. The goal is to improve the understanding of platform labor and uncover the limits of the current models of the platform economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multi-agent organizational model represents a coordination mechanism that allows tasks to be shared among agents to perform complex tasks. While the Agent-Group-Role organizational model (AGR) provides a concise methodological framework for designing multi-agent systems, it is expressed in informal language and lacks formal semantics. Consequently, designers of multi-agent systems have been unable to exploit this model for analysing and checking the behaviour of their systems. Some works propose investigating the issue of model transformation; unfortunately, no effort has been made to transform AGR models using a formal language defined on the semantics of true concurrency. The DD-LOTOS Language is one of the promising alternatives to this problem, as it is based on true concurrency semantics and supports the distributed aspect of the system. This paper proposes a formal approach that generates DD-LOTOS specifications from AGR models. This formalization permits the analysis, verification, and validation of the important properties of an organization. Model-to-text (M2T) transformation uses the Xpand tools to implement the approach. The e-commerce case study is used to illustrate our approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insect protein has received considerable attention as an alternative to conventional animal proteins with its high nutritional contents and eco-friendly credentials. Exploring commercially available insect-protein-enhanced foods, this study aims to profile and compare such products in the ultra-processed category with products protein-enhanced with dairy (e.g., milk and whey) and plants (e.g., pea and rice). A global product audit was conducted drawing from English-language online retail portals to determine the product formats and statistically compare their nutritional contents with products fortified with non-insect proteins. The results show that four categories—flour/powder, pasta/noodle, starch-based snacks (e.g., chips, crackers, and cookies), and energy bars—are involved with food enhanced with insect protein. Flour/powder and pasta/noodles with insects demonstrated comparable protein contents to non-insect equivalents, highlighting insects' potential as effective protein sources. However, insect protein's performances in snacks and energy bars were less favourable, with significantly lower protein contents compared to products enhanced with non-insect sources. This may be attributed to the high fat content of insects, which may also contribute to undesirable flavours in complex foods, limiting their usage. The study highlights the need for industry innovation and scientific collaboration to overcome the challenges to widely applying insects as food ingredients, offering benefits for both the industry and consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mobilisation of new distance-based technologies that permit the governance of platform workers' behaviour constitutes a watershed in the organisation of work and a transformation of the grammar of wage-earning society. Employing a qualitative methodology, this article analyses Spanish riders' (delivery couriers) experiences of these psychopolitical mechanisms. The results show that the neoliberal and entrepreneurial dispositive deployed by digital platforms induces new rationalities of self-governance that are characterised by productive self-optimisation and self-surveillance. However, the analysis also found that the interpellation of the dispositive and its technologies of subjectivation were not homogeneous across all of the study participants. The article describes the characteristics and argumentative positions of three groups of riders whose sociostructural position shaped their experiences and engagement with the platforms as well as resistance to control mechanisms and disciplinary processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on migrant workers generally indicates limited worker collectivism. Based on a comparative study of two Danish platform companies, however, this article shows how digital migrant networks are a crucial social infrastructure in precarious working environments. Using a novel conceptual framework that differentiates between collective strategies of coping and resistance, we show that collective resistance can spring from migrant networks. This foregrounds an understanding of how collectivism underpinned by strong migrant networks can wax and wane, which broadens our understanding of collectivism as a dynamic practice. The study's findings underscore the importance of political networks as a foundation for strategies of resistance, the value of network embeddedness, and the effects of particular migrant and employment characteristics on collective strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Celebrity endorsements via live streaming continue to draw attention in the tourism industry. This research examines the effects of such endorsements on tourism live streaming. We specifically compared celebrity streamers to key opinion leader streamers and brand streamers across two types of live streaming (travel live streaming vs. tourism e-commerce live streaming). Drawing on the flow theory, we developed a theoretical framework to explain why and how celebrity streamers can inspire travel intention more effectively than key opinion leader streamers and brand streamers. Results indicate that celebrity streamers' endorsements enhance travel intention via informativity, entertainment, and interactivity, compared with endorsements from key opinion leaders and brand streamers. This effect is further amplified during travel live streaming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The text discusses the emergence of responsible platforms in response to the negative impacts of dominant platforms like Amazon, Airbnb, and Uber. These responsible platforms, such as Fairbnb and The Drivers Cooperative, focus on social value, fair working conditions, and sustainable solutions. While they face challenges and operate on the margins of the sharing economy, they aim to disrupt the market by appealing to sustainability-oriented consumers and catering to niche needs. Despite their smaller market share, responsible platforms shape public discourse and influence marketplace dynamics, challenging hypercapitalist models and promoting more responsible consumption and distribution of wealth and power. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the impact of Web3 and decentralization on the digital platform economy, highlighting the benefits and challenges of decentralized governance. It explores how blockchain technology can disintermediate digital platforms, promote transparency, democracy, and fair value distribution. However, it also acknowledges the limitations and challenges of complete decentralization, such as increased costs, complexity, and exclusion of certain groups. The authors suggest that a balance between decentralization and centralization may be necessary to address these issues and improve the digital ecosystem for all users. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the challenges brands face in the platform age, where platforms often overshadow brand identities, leading to commoditization. The SHIELD framework is proposed as a strategy to help brands stand out and thrive in this competitive landscape. Strategies within SHIELD include showrooming, hyperfocused strategy, infatuated customer strategy, ecosystem strategy, loyalty strategy, and drip pricing strategy, each aimed at fostering direct customer engagement and preventing commoditization. The ultimate goal is for brands to cultivate a compelling identity that resonates with consumers and builds a loyal community, transcending platform boundaries in the digital age. [Extracted from the article]

The article "Chinese and US Digital Platforms: Exploring Key Differences in Strategies" by Xiaoquan (Michael) Zhang from the NIM Marketing Intelligence Review discusses how Chinese and US digital platforms differ in their strategies due to cultural, regulatory, and market forces. Chinese platforms, like WeChat, focus on creating integrated ecosystems with a wide array of services, while US platforms, like Meta and X, maintain more focused identities. Understanding these strategic differences is crucial for businesses and policymakers to navigate the global digital landscape effectively. [Extracted from the article]

The article "Transforming Products into Platforms: Unearthing New Avenues for Business Innovation" discusses the power and challenges of platform businesses, emphasizing the benefits of network effects and scalability. It explores methods for brands to add platform elements to their products, such as inviting third-party sellers or connecting customers. The article also highlights the importance of careful governance and clear rules when implementing platform strategies to ensure a positive customer experience. Additionally, it emphasizes the significance of leveraging platform opportunities in today's digital economy and offers insights on building and utilizing platforms effectively. [Extracted from the article]

Blockchain can help reduce fraud and improve visibility and traceability in supply chains. It has attracted significant investments in commercial practices, especially in the luxury industry. With the recent upgradation of consumption worldwide, consumers care more about the source of information and the value of products. Will tracing products using blockchain technology help competing luxury brands gain consumer trust and cultivate new competitive advantages? This paper proposes a supply chain model comprising two competing manufacturers selling online through retail or direct channels. It also explores whether and how manufacturers implement traceability strategies, including building traceability systems or joining third‐party blockchain platforms, considering blockchain's traceability. The results show that, when only one party adopts the traceability strategy, being the first mover to join a third‐party blockchain platform with high traceability is always beneficial for improving the profits of all parties. In this scenario, the blockchain platform should adopt as high traceability as possible. When both parties choose to trace the product source, a win–win strategy for them is to join third‐party blockchain platforms with low traceability. In this scenario, the untraced party is motivated to implement a traceability strategy. Furthermore, if consumer perceptions of traceability are high, an untraced manufacturer can obtain higher profits using the traceability strategy. Otherwise, low consumer perception of traceability leads to low‐price competition, which is harmful to luxury brands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we investigate pricing decisions with different decision sequences in an e‐commerce supply chain. The e‐commerce platform sells blockchain‐compatible products through a self‐operated model, while the retailer operating on the platform sells general products. Furthermore, we take into account the impact of counterfeits infiltrating the general product market. This can trigger consumers' anticipated regrets, including high‐price regret and fake purchase regret. We design three scenarios: Scenario ES (the e‐commerce platform makes the decision first), Scenario RS (the retailer makes the decision first), and Scenario VN (they make decisions simultaneously). We study the impact of consumers' anticipated regrets and the decision sequence on pricing strategies, as well as the profits of the e‐commerce platform and the retailer. Our results show that the optimal retail prices of the two versions of the products and the profits of the e‐commerce platform and the retailer are negatively correlated with the relative regret intensity. The profits of the e‐commerce platform and the retailer are the lowest under Scenario VN due to the fiercest competition. The e‐commerce platform prefers Scenario RS to Scenario ES. If the counterfeit penetration rate is small and the commission rate is large, the retailer prefers Scenario RS to Scenario ES. However, if the counterfeit penetration rate is high, or if both the counterfeit penetration rate and the commission rate are low, the retailer prefers Scenario ES to Scenario RS. Furthermore, if government penalties (or consumer claims) exist, the retailer should combat counterfeiting appropriately for better financial performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fraudulent returns have become increasingly frequent in the development of online retail platforms, leading to huge losses for retailers. A blockchain‐based system can help eliminate this problem primarily because the data stored in a blockchain network cannot be modified. In this paper, we study the impact of blockchain technology that aims to eliminate fraudulent return behavior on retailers and their upstream suppliers. We develop a game‐theoretic model that comprises a supplier, a retailer, and customers and analyze the equilibrium outcomes. The results show that the retailer would (not) adopt blockchain technology if the efficiency of the supplier's investment in the innovation of its products is high (low). Moreover, if the retailer's loss from the return is low (high), the adoption of blockchain technology decreases (increases) the supplier's investment and the wholesale and retail prices. In terms of its effect on profitability, we reveal that if the fraudulent return losses are high, using blockchain technology always benefits the supplier; otherwise, it increases retailer profitability and supply chain performance but may make the supplier suffer losses in profits. Interestingly, the retailer would adopt blockchain technology to ensure profitability in situations where the number of customers without fraudulent returns and the intensity of losses are low; however, this weakens supplier profitability and meanwhile reduces supply chain performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, some e‐commerce platforms (e.g., JD.com), which allow firms to set up third‐party stores on them, have established their own blockchain technology and publicly provided blockchain technology to firms. Besides, source tracing of fresh agricultural products on blockchain is a concern for consumers. For firms selling fresh agricultural products, whether to join the platform blockchain technology to disclose product freshness and whether to set up third‐party stores on platforms are thorny problems. To research the interaction between joining the platform blockchain technology strategy and channel encroachment decision for fresh agricultural product firms, we consider four theoretical models. The main results demonstrate that whether firms set up third‐party stores on the platforms or not, their strategies of joining the platform blockchain technology are dependent on consumer's sensitivity to the freshness‐keeping effort level of fresh agricultural product, consumer's trust degree of freshness‐keeping effort level, and the unit blockchain operation cost. Besides, if firms set up third‐party stores, the willingness of joining the platform blockchain technology will increase. Firms' channel encroachment willingness will also be affected by their joining the platform blockchain technology strategy. Moreover, when considering the fresh agricultural product supply chain, these main conclusions are still held. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumers are shifting purchasing behavior from physical stores to online vendors and increasingly relying on reviews from peers to make purchase decisions. Brands are keen to use these reviews in promotions and to facilitate product innovation. But there is an unforeseen outcome: this paper shows that when consumers rely on online reviews, they are overall less loyal to brands and more likely to purchase private label brands. Using a large North American sample from a commercial dataset, this paper empirically investigates these relationships and reports implications for retailing and marketing researchers and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]