Pls-sem

The majority of social science studies on self-driving vehicles has focused on accepting technology using a methodology that investigates direct relationships only. However, there is an increasing demand for an in-depth social analysis of self-driving vehicle acceptance, exploring more complex relationships. Here, this challenge is responded to by the statistical modelling of the acceptance of self-driving technology, allowing for an exploration of the direct and indirect relationships among the relevant variables. Most previous studies have also been conducted in developed countries, and limited information is available on the acceptance of self-driving technology in less-developed countries.
The present study constructs an explanatory statistical model of the Hungarian population’s concept of self-driving vehicles based on a representative sample of 1,001 participants. Furthermore, a graphical representation of the model is provided. The main results include the determination of the most influential factors on the acceptance of self-driving vehicles and the attribution of direct and indirect relationships among the variables, thus providing deeper knowledge than that previously obtained and complementing the currently available research results. Based on our results, the expected advantages of self-driving technology have the greatest direct and total impact on the acceptance of this technology in Hungary. The enthusiasm for new technologies and the expected disadvantages of self-driving technology has a slightly weaker direct and second-largest total impact. Information needs on self-driving technology, awareness of driving support systems, and perceived usefulness of new technologies had a weak but significant direct impact.
The results of our study will provide essential information for the successful integration of self-driving technologies into the innovation systems of less-developed countries.

Blended learning is an essential approach in the 21 st century by combining face to face classroom teaching with online learning. Therefore, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) should provide adequate resources, conducive environment and culture to support the blended learning readiness among their students. Attitude is an important variable in meeting the readiness and HEIs can achieve much more through attitude than through other variables. In this paper, with a sample of 305 students of SPACE UTM, the researchers use a model to show that the technology access, technical usage self-efficacy, online communication self-efficacy and online media affect not only on blended learning readiness, but also to their attitude. Furthermore, this study confirms that the presence of attitude as a mediator between the technology access, technical usage self-efficacy, online communication self-efficacy and online media and leads to increased blended learning readiness among students. However, the findings suggest that the increase of the technology acces s does not increase their attitude directly, but affect positively to blended learning readiness. This conclusion provides insightful implications for online learning practic e in HEIs. The findings indicated that while HEIs should invest in advanced technology facilities, greater emphasis on the 21 st learning skills would strengthen influence students' thinking and attitude in order to position the blended learning as their new way of learning.

The form of live streaming e-commerce brings a more intuitive and vivid shopping experience to the consumer’s name. The total transaction amount continues to increase, gradually becoming a new growth driver for e-commerce platforms. The study adopts an empirical research method by considering and summarising the previous research results and the current development of e-commerce live streaming. Based on the stimulus-organism-response (S-0-R) model, perceived value, and other theories, a consumer purchase intention model in the e-commerce live streaming context is established. Live stimuli such as entertainment and opinion leaders were used as independent variables. Organismic responses, such as trust, perceived functional value and perceived emotional value, were used as intermediate variables. Consumer purchase intention was used as the dependent variable. This study's measurement scale was designed based on established scales, and 512 valid questionnaires were collected through a questionnaire. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 23 and SMART-PLS 3.0. The following conclusions were obtained: the two antecedent variables of opinion leader and entertainment positively affect trust, perceived functional value and perceived emotional value, and the degree of influence is very significant. The higher the quality of the live e-commerce content, the stronger the opinion leader, i.e. the anchor. The more entertaining the live broadcast, the stronger the degree of consumer trust, perceived functional value and perceived emotional value.

Fiyat tüketiciler için önemli bir satın alma karar değişkenidir. Fiyatın tüketicilerin kararları üzerindeki etkisini bilen işletmeler mal ve hizmetlerinin satışlarını arttırmak amacıyla sık sık fiyat indirimleri,
promosyonlar, tutundurma kampanyaları ile tüketicileri satın almaya teşvik etmeye çalışırlar. Bu çalışmada artık tüm dünyaca bilinen ve ülkemizde de yaygınlaşan Black Friday indirim kampanyasının tüketicilerin satın alma davranışı üzerindeki etkisi ortaya konulmaya çalışılmıştır. Bu bağlamda Sivas ili şehir merkezinde yaşayan kolayda örnekleme yöntemiyle belirlenmiş 392 kişi ile yüz yüze anket tekniği
kullanılarak toplanan veriler Bağımsız Örneklemler T Testi, Tek Yönlü Varyans Analizi, Doğrulayıcı Faktör Analizi ve Yol Analizi ile test edilmiştir. Analiz sonuçlarına göre indirim kampanyaları tüketicilerin satın alma davranışları üzerinde pozitif ve anlamlı bir etkiye sahiptir. Yine indirim kampanyalarına yönelik tutumlar demografik değişkenlere göre
farklılık göstermektedir. Black Friday kampanyasını uygulayan işletmeler, daha başarılı olabilmeleri için tüketicilere karşı dürüst olmaları, aldatıcı fiyat politikaları uygulamamaları, taleplere ve yoğunluğa cevap verebilmeleri konularındaki istekleri dikkate almaları önerilir. Bu çalışma Türkiye’de uygulanan Black Friday kampanyasının tüketici davranışları
üzerindeki etkisini YEM analizi ile ortaya koyarak ilgili literatürü genişletmektedir.

This research work has two objectives. On the one hand, to analyze the influence that Perceived Usefulness of Programmatic Advertising (PA) has on the user's Concern about Privacy, and on the other, to check whether this relationship changes over time. That is, to find out how improvements in the effectiveness of programmatic advertising might increase the users' concern for privacy. Today, programmatic advertising can be very invasive, not only because of the use of cookies and geolocation, but also because of using algorithms that analyze users' interests in order to offer related products at a later date when the user visits other different websites which are not at all related to the first. Secondly, this document investigates whether this relationship increases over time and if there are any time-related effects. In this study, data from of a very large sample of Internet users in Spain (n = 14,822) was analyzed at three different moments of time between 2013 and 2017. PLS-SEM was used for the analysis given its usefulness in social studies. Several groups were analyzed to test the difference between the path coefficients of the latent variables at different moments in time. Academics and professionals will benefit from this document by being able to see the importance of this relationship over time and how it changes. The use of a longitudinal study allowed for an investigation into, not only the existence of the relationship, but how it changed over the years.

The focus of the study is to achieve the maximum advertising value on ecotourists using social media. In this area, the main objective of the "Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)" is to increase the present awareness of social media marketing. This topic is primarily concerned with exploring the context of social media advertisement with knowledge, service, and its behavioural intent to use social media ads within the unique environment of ecotourism in Malaysia. The approach of the study is to analyse a survey of 395 local Malaysian tourists in Klang Valley to test the "Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)". The empirical findings denote that social media advertisement in ecotourism has positive effects on "Perceived ease of use" and "Perceived usefulness," in terms of its 'Informativeness' and "Service Functionality." That, in effect, contributes to the behavioural purpose of using social media ecotourism advertisements. The discipline's findings indicate that advertising in social media in ecotourism needs to be utilized to provide a quick understanding. Also, the advertising is updated continuously to ensure reliable and appropriate sources to meet ecotourists' information requirements and the support of tourist product ratings. These traits should satisfy travellers, making them likely to revisit different ecotourism sights. These appearances should satisfy tourists and allow them to re-visit various ecotourist attractions.

In recent years, there is a noticeable increase of cashless transactions due to the development of financial technology. As a result of being expansion of fintech products such as e-wallet, consumers are shifting from cash-based to cashless. Young adult consumers in 21st century are regarded as tech-savvy as they were born in the era of smartphone technology. This study aims to examine the influencing factors for Malaysian young adults to use e-wallet as a payment method by applying extended technology acceptance model (TAM). Total of 330 data were collected from the users of e-wallet in the area of Klang Valley of Malaysia and analyzed by deploying partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). By applying two-step approach for instance, measurement model for indicator loadings, convergent validity, reliability and structural model for path analysis the findings from this study reveal that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and privacy and security have positive and significant relationship with behavioral intention to use e-wallet. This study helps the service providers of the digital marketplace further to have better understanding of the usefulness of using e-wallet for transaction purposes.

When estimating moderating effects in partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), researchers can choose from a variety of approaches to model the influence of a moderator on a relationship between two constructs by generating different interaction terms. While prior research has evaluated the efficacy of these approaches in the context of PLS-SEM, the impact of different data treatment options on their performance in the context of standard PLS-SEM and consistent PLS-SEM (PLSc-SEM) is as yet unexplored. Our simulation study addresses these limitations and explores if the choice of approach and data treatment option has a pronounced impact on the methods’ parameter recovery. An empirical application substantiates these findings. Based on our results, we offer recommendations for researchers wishing to estimate moderating effects by means of PLS-SEM and PLSc-SEM.

The  numbers  of  smartphone banking  applications  have  risen  over  the  years.  Gaining popularity  of  smartphone  banking  apps  resulted  in  many  millennials  switching  from internet banking to mobile banking apps. The purpose of this study is to determine the factors  that  influence  millennials‟  behavioral  intention  to  use  smartphone  banking applications.  The  research  framework  is  developed  base  on  the  technology  acceptance model  (TAM).  A  total  of  310  questionnaires  were  distributed  to  the  users  of smartphone  banking  apps  in  Klang  Valley  areaof  Malaysia.  The  partial  least  squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique is employed to process and analyze the  data.  The  two-step  approach  involves in analyzing  the  data.  Firstly,  measurement model  assessment which is  associated with indicator  loadings. Secondly, the structural model which is associated with path coefficient measures. The findings from this study reveal  that  perceived  usefulness,  perceived  ease  of  use,  perceived  trust  and  perceived security  have  a  positive  and  significant  influence  on  behavioral  intention  where perceived  security  has  a  stronger  influence  on  trust  and  perceived  ease  of  use  on perceived usefulness. The findings from this study will benefit the banking apps service provider to ensure the best mechanism to be implemented to gain customers' attention.

The partial least squares (PLS) approach to structural equation modeling (SEM) has been widely adopted in business research fields such as information systems, consumer behavior, and marketing. The use of PLS in the field of operations management is also growing. However, questions still exist among some operations management researchers regarding whether and how PLS should be used. To address these questions, our study provides a practical guideline for using PLS and uses examples from the operations management literature to demonstrate how the specific points in this guideline can be applied. In addition, our study reviews and summarizes the use of PLS in the recent operations management literature according to our guideline. The main contribution of this study is to present a practical guideline for evaluating and using PLS that is tailored to the operations management field.

Airbnb is a home-sharing mobile platform that enables tourists and local hosts to connect. Airbnb mobile app allows hosts to list down the space available for rent and allow tourists to look for accommodations that are often more localized. Historical cities are often engaging tourists using traditional hotel reservation methods such as phone reservations or booking by travel agents, however, given digital disruption more local businesses are adopting technology in their business. This motivated the current study to assess the rate of peer-to-peer technology pervasiveness in historical city tourism, particularly for hotel booking using Airbnb app. This research investigates the factors that predict tourists’ behavioural intention to use Airbnb app when they travel to the historical city of Malacca in Malaysia by adopting the Extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) model and by critically evaluating the exhaustiveness of the theory to measure tourists’ use of a mobile app. Partial Least Square analysis was used to test the research model, construct path model and to validate research hypotheses. The results from a sample of 200 tourists who visited and stayed in Malacca show that price value and social influence have high significant positive influence on their behavioural intention to use Airbnb app when booking accommodation in the historical city. In contrast, hedonic motivation and habit were found not significant, potentially due to the short-term and occasion-specific usage of Airbnb app not forming enjoyment in the process of usage, which raises concerns on applicability and relevance of UTAUT2 theory to measure user adoption of a mobile app for tourism. A peculiar finding in the study is the significant negative influence of facilitating condition to behavioural intention, for which we explain a plausible cause in the paper.

This study explores entrepreneurial intention from psychological perspectives. By adopting the psychological characteristic, Need for Achievement by McClelland (1961) and Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), the study is to investigate the factors influencing Entrepreneurial Intention among polytechnic students in Malaysia. A survey method was employed to collect the data, resulting 372 usable data. The respondents are the final year diploma students studying accountancy, civil engineering, and electronic engineering from seven polytechnics in Malaysia. PLS-SEM technique was run, with the application of bootstrapping method, to test the relationship between research models constructs; Need for Achievement, Attitudes, Subjective Norms, Perceived Behavioural Control, Self-Efficacy, and Entrepreneurial Intention. The measurement (outer) model and the structural (inner) model of the latent constructs are examined. The findings found that all seven hypotheses are supported. It is suggested for future studies to adopt this model and replace Need for Achievement with other psychological characteristics.

One of the possible determinants of the intention to use bitcoin may be the trust of users because in the short time of validity of the
cryptocurrency has proven to be a real option against fiat money. In this regard it should be added that few studies consider trust as
a determinant of the use of Bitcoin; therefore, the purpose of this research is to know what are the factors on which trust is based
and to know to what extent the perceived risk has a negative connotation on the use of cryptocurrency. To accomplish this, a model
is integrated and is analyzed under the methodology of structural equations by partial least squares (PLS-SEM), applied to a sample
of 174 bitcoin users. The evaluation of the seven theoretical hypotheses indicates that the key elements of trust are structural
guarantees and familiarity since they determine the intention of use and this, in turn, the actual use; unlike calculative-based trust
and situational normality, which are not very significant. The perceived risk was shown to have little relation to the intended use.
Therefore, Bitcoin-related service providers should focus on generating trust situations for users based on security and regulations
and creating environments that generate familiarity.

URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/19349

This dissertation illustrates an empirical application of Porter's (1990, 2004) Diamond Model using the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM; Wold, 1975, 1982) method in order to assess the effects of the microeconomic business environment on firms' competitive advantage and the government's supportive role in improving such an environment. It follows a concurrent triangulation design and takes firms in the Portuguese Engineering & Tooling cluster as the basic unit of analysis.

The findings from the path analysis derive from a total number of 168 questionnaire responses obtained from firms in the cluster, which were subsequently triangulated with secondary data and interviews conducted with several cluster stakeholders. These findings reveal a positive effect of the related and supporting industries, the context for firm strategy and rivalry, and the factor (input) conditions at the cluster level on firms' competitive advantage. Government action has also been shown to have a positive effect on the four determinants of the Diamond Model. Conversely, respondents' perceptions do not support a positive effect of the demand conditions at the cluster level on firms' competitive advantage.

The positive and negative effects of the Engineering & Tooling cluster's environment on the competitive edge of firms highlight the catalytic roles of the government and collective action in cluster upgrading.

The sudden COVID-19-induced transition from a physical university life to a virtual one was a painful one for many students. Social distancing measures mean more than a simple change from face-to-face to online education. This study investigates how different social aspects, such as the students’ psychological sense of community, social capital, and use of social media, facilitated the perceived social support during the transition to the COVID-19 lockdown. Our results not only underline social media’s role, but also indicate that the perceived social support, as well as the bonding and bridging social capital, were particularly relevant during the transition process. Our findings are aimed at organizational management by recommending actionable ways in which they could improve social support by organizing computer-supported social networks, social support predictors, and specialized interventions for students with less perceived social support. As such, the study provides unique insights into the COVID-19-induced lockdown situation among students, while offering a transition model that is also generalized to other settings.

Most studies focused on the introduction of new technologies have not investigated the psychological factors affecting the willingness to use them or conducted empirical studies to explore whether willingness and actual construction safety knowledge-sharing behavior are associated with fewer construction incidents. We conducted face-to-face and LinkedIn open-ended interviews as well as a global survey to study the willingness and actual behavior to share construction knowledge via social software Web 2.0, Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile apps. Then, the Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) for willingness and actual knowledge-sharing behavior, as well as the Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) Neural Network were used to illustrate the effect of various factors on predicting the willingness to share knowledge via Web 2.0, mobile apps and IoT. Results of the interviews found that practitioners use IoT for knowledge sharing, mainly because they do not want to fall behind the curve. PLS-SEM and MLP revealed that practitioners share construction safety knowledge are not driven by safety-related reasons such as safety awareness enhancement but perceived organization support from their companies. Employees who agree that their organization cared about their employees' well-being was the strongest predictor in influencing people's decision to use tools for knowledge sharing. Moreover, many respondents claimed that factors such as monetary rewards have little impact on motivating people to use tools for knowledge sharing.

The form of live streaming e-commerce brings a more intuitive and vivid shopping experience to the consumer’s name. The total transaction amount continues to increase, gradually becoming a new growth driver for e-commerce platforms. The study adopts an empirical research method by considering and summarising the previous research results and the current development of e-commerce live streaming. Based on the stimulus-organism-response (S-0-R) model, perceived value, and other theories, a consumer purchase intention model in the e-commerce live streaming context is established. Live stimuli such as entertainment and opinion leaders were used as independent variables. Organismic responses, such as trust, perceived functional value and perceived emotional value, were used as intermediate variables. Consumer purchase intention was used as the dependent variable. This study's measurement scale was designed based on established scales, and 512 valid questionnaires were collected through a questionnaire. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 23 and SMART-PLS 3.0. The following conclusions were obtained: the two antecedent variables of opinion leader and entertainment positively affect trust, perceived functional value and perceived emotional value, and the degree of influence is very significant. The higher the quality of the live e-commerce content, the stronger the opinion leader, i.e. the anchor. The more entertaining the live broadcast, the stronger the degree of consumer trust, perceived functional value and perceived emotional value.

Adoption of Saemaul Undong in Indonesia through Global Saemaul Undong Project uses Village Fund Program that focuses on improving village government authority as policy entry. This research aims to improve applicability of Saemaul Undong Concept in Indonesia by reviewing and analyzing impact of participation experience in Global Saemaul Undong Project on participation in Village Fund Program. This research uses Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) to process data sample of 99 Ponjong villagers’ opinion about their participation in Global Saemaul Undong Project and Village Fund Program, result of Global Saemaul Undong Project, and their perception about Village Fund Program. This research finds that, in term of participation, Global Saemaul Undong Project has direct positive impact to Village Fund Program which occurrs through synchronization of Global Saemaul Undong Project and Village Fund Program. However, insignificant indirect effect might indicate obstacles in realizing mindset change into participation.

The aim of this study is to analyze, evaluate and validate the NSE (National Student Enquiry) as a service quality measure helping both higher education institutions (HEIs) and students in their decision making. Every year the Dutch foundation 'Studiekeuze123' sends out a survey (the NSE) to collect data on service quality regarding education at HEIs in the Netherlands. We used the 2019 NSE-data from the only e-learning university in the Netherlands, the Open Universiteit (OUNL), containing a sample of 1287 students. PLS-SEM was used to analyze a conceptual model in order to understand the service quality factors that promote students' level of satisfaction and willingness to recommend the HEI. Overall, the findings reveal that the quality of the NSE is sufficient to be used for performance analysis. Nine out of twelve service components taken into account for the OUNL are found statistically significant affecting students' satisfaction and willingness to recommend. The results help HEIs promoting and managing students' perceptions of the quality of education and support students in their decision making process. Since many HEIs had to make a transition from onsite to online education within a short period of time, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, service quality became a major concern for HEIs. As online learning systems are expected to stay, analyzing the service quality of the OUNL as a reputed online HEI can help other HEIs getting their online learning systems on track.

This document is a report on the findings of a study aims to investigate human motivations affecting an adoption decision for smartphone among Peruvian university students. This research investigates smartphone users' perception using technology acceptance model (TAM). It is analyzed perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and attitude toward to keep using a smartphone as determinants for behavioral intention to keep using a smartphone between Peru-vian university students, evaluating them with reliability and validity and confirming the hypotheses elaborated for the study. Findings indicate that the behav-ioral intention to keep using a smartphone (BIU) was significantly influenced by perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived usefulness (PU) and attitude toward to keep using a smartphone (AKUS) and also, PEOU influenced significantly to PU. This study not only provides valuable information about students´thestudents´the intention to keep using a smartphone, but also enriches the current literature, focusing on Peru, which has a different commercial characteristics and cultural background as compared to North America, Europe and Asia. According to the current literature review, this is the first study on this subject that specifically focuses on the use of smartphones by Peruvian university students.

As information and communication technology (ICT) rapidly developed, government are rearranging the way they work and iteract both internally and externallly. One of the communication ways between the government and citizen are the annual tax reporting services. e-Filing are the personal tax report application in Indonesia that provided by the Directorate General of Taxes under the Ministry of Finance, Republic of Indonesia. This system plays an important role in the government's efforts to reduce the queue in the reporting tax. This research aimed to find the correlations between trust and the usage of e-Filing application. Collected data are 61 respondents where 39 respondents experienced in using the e-Filing will be analyzed using the method of Partial Least Square – Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM). The evaluation results of the measurement model found that the usage of the application is weakly unaf ected by 26% of public trust in the government.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162521002468
The literature describes the potential for using future services technologies in public health emergencies. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic is resulting in unparalleled challenges to healthcare services in almost all countries, requiring innovative methods of practicing across health professions. Factors affecting pharmacists’ choice of telemedicine adoption/non-adoption are yet to be examined, especially in Italy. Thus, we investigate the behavioral intentions of pharmacists related to telemedicine, as a future services technology, in the current pandemic context. Our model draws on the theory of planned behavior and extends it to investigate the mechanisms underlying attitude formation to telemedicine adoption through a cross-sectional approach, using a questionnaire-based survey. The model has medium-to-high power in predicting telemedicine adoption intention, and the two significant direct antecedents of the target construct (attitude to telemedicine, and perceived behavioral control) are almost equally important. The psychological mechanisms linked to the tendency to implement emerging technology are complex and have major management effects. Studies in this field are yet to focus on the issues that affect the pharmacists’ decision regarding adopting or not adopting telemedicine, as a future services technology.

Yönetim ve Organizasyon araştırmalarının en önemli analiz yöntemlerinden birisi olan Yapısal Eşitlik Modeline yeni bir bakış açısı getiren Kısmi En Küçük Kareler Yapısal Eşitlik Modeli (PLS-SEM) ölçüm ve yapısal teorisi hakkında temel bilgi sağlayan bu kitap, derinlemesine hiçbir istatistik bilgisine gerek duyulmadan PLS-SEM yönteminin nasıl uygulanacağını, PLS-SEM kullanarak yol modellerinin nasıl belirleneceğini ve tahmin edileceğini ve PLS-SEM analiz sonuçlarının nasıl değerlendirileceğini ele alan kavramsal bir çerçeve ortaya koymaktadır. Bu kavramsal çerçeve ise PLS-SEM analizlerinde en çok tercih edilen yazılım olan SmartPLS 3 kullanılarak Yönetim ve Organizasyon alanında örnek bir uygulamanın analizi ile desteklenmektedir.

This paper investigates WS's apparent incremental mediating effect over and above the team interaction process's mediating effect in the relationship between Team transformational leadership and team effectiveness. This paper has used a cross-sectional research design and the PLS-SEM approach to run the data analysis. This research has shown that workplace spirituality exercises an incremental mediating effect on team effectiveness. Further, workplace spirituality's effect size is the highest among the study's constructs, I.e., team transformational leadership, team interaction process, and WS. This study has contributed to the literature on team processes by situating workplace spirituality as a team process construct. Further, it has been shown that the team interaction process determines team effectiveness.

Full paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652621034776

Evidence of the effects of tourism businesses’ strategies to mitigate the negative impacts of the COVID-19 crisis remains remarkably scarce. Drawing on the system resilience framework, this study suggests a model in which corporate social responsibility (CSR) behaviours encompassing five dimensions – community, employees, environment, heritage and products – and co-creation experience mediate the relationships between strategies and performance. Applying partial least squares structural equation modeling to a sample of 199 agritourism businesses in Italy, this study finds that proactive strategies have a positive effect on performance and that this effect is fully mediated by CSR and co-creation experience. Reactive strategies have both a negative direct effect and a positive mediated effect on performance. Hence, the strategies positively affect performance only if they first contribute to the resilience of the local system through CSR behaviours, enhancing the resources needed for tourism experience co-creation. This analysis emphasises the impacts of the community, environmental and heritage dimensions of CSR behaviours.

The aim of this study is to determine the factors that are important in the acceptance of Internet of Things technologies by consumers and to establish a model that explains the acceptance behavior. With data collected from 359 participants, the model is tested using partial least square structural equation model. Accordingly, 62% of behavioral intention is explained. In this context, some relationships are defined for the first time within the scope of the present study and presented to the literature. Results show how complex the formation of consumer intention is for the adoption of IoT technologies.

JEL classification: G210 The banking industry is one of the most important industries in developing countries, thus it plays a major role in the financial industry. Moreover, e-banking has simplified financial transactions. This study investigates the effect of individual factors on user behaviour and the moderating effect of attitude on the relationship between individual factors and user behaviour based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. A model suggests a second-order components research framework that improves current explanations of electronic banking channel services acceptance and sheds light on the role of attitude on the acceptance of electronic banking channel services which is the most important key concern. Data were collected using an online questionnaire with 476 valid responses from academic staff who work at the University of Sulaimani; the model has been tested using the Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling approach. The results show that individual factors have a positive effect on user behaviour and also show that attitude has a negative effect on the relationship between individual factors and user behaviour as a moderator.

The form of live streaming e-commerce brings a more intuitive and vivid shopping experience to the consumer’s name. The total transaction amount continues to increase, gradually becoming a new growth driver for e-commerce platforms. The study adopts an empirical research method by considering and summarising the previous research results and the current development of e-commerce live streaming. Based on the stimulus-organism-response (S-0-R) model, perceived value, and other theories, a consumer purchase intention model in the e-commerce live streaming context is established. Live stimuli such as entertainment and opinion leaders were used as independent variables. Organismic responses, such as trust, perceived functional value and perceived emotional value, were used as intermediate variables. Consumer purchase intention was used as the dependent variable. This study's measurement scale was designed based on established scales, and 512 valid questionnaires were collected through a questionnaire. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 23 and SMART-PLS 3.0. The following conclusions were obtained: the two antecedent variables of opinion leader and entertainment positively af ect trust, perceived functional value and perceived emotional value, and the degree of influence is very significant. The higher the quality of the live e-commerce content, the stronger the opinion leader, i.e. the anchor. The more entertaining the live broadcast, the stronger the degree of consumer trust, perceived functional value and perceived emotional value.

Corporate governance provides the course and control by which directors steer and supervise their respective companies in light of stewardship and sustainability. Bound to guide and guard these firms, it aims to equitably account and address the competing interests of different stakeholders. This paper endeavours to establish the effect of corporate governance on abnormal returns around business combinations among publicly listed companies that undertook complete mergers and acquisitions in the Philippines from 2000 to 2015 using Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Particularly from three years before to three years after the year of business combination, it determines that corporate governance has significant positive effect on abnormal returns. It suggests that in the context of business combinations, firms reasonably provide their directors and executives equitable compensation packages by which they are satisfyingly empowered to efficiently and effectively work in advancing the optimal returns thereto.

In this paper, a relationship of customer satisfaction and behavioral intention inthe fast food chains has been examined. A survey was conducted in three major cities of Pakistan as Sahiwal, Lahore, and Gujranwala. Data of fast food consumers were collected from target population with sample size 166 respondents by applying convenience sampling technique of non-probability sampling. PLS-SEM is used to interpret the results of this study. The finding revealed that positive customer satisfaction leads to positive behavioral intention and healthy brand image in the minds of customers. The results will lead the managers of the industry to prioritize the focus on various antecedents of satisfaction of customer especially food quality, service quality and price value ratio.

The form of live streaming e-commerce brings a more intuitive and vivid shopping experience to the consumer’s name. The total transaction amount continues to increase, gradually becoming a new growth driver for e-commerce platforms. The study adopts an empirical research method by considering and summarising the previous research results and the current development of e-commerce live streaming. Based on the stimulus-organism-response (S-0-R) model, perceived value, and other theories, a consumer purchase intention model in the e-commerce live streaming context is established. Live stimuli such as entertainment and opinion leaders were used as independent variables. Organismic responses, such as trust, perceived functional value and perceived emotional value, were used as intermediate variables. Consumer purchase intention was used as the dependent variable. This study's measurement scale was designed based on established scales, and 512 valid questionnaires were collected through a questionnaire. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 23 and SMART-PLS 3.0. The following conclusions were obtained: the two antecedent variables of opinion leader and entertainment positively af ect trust, perceived functional value and perceived emotional value, and the degree of influence is very significant. The higher the quality of the live e-commerce content, the stronger the opinion leader, i.e. the anchor. The more entertaining the live broadcast, the stronger the degree of consumer trust, perceived functional value and perceived emotional value.

Business combinations, commonly known as mergers and acquisitions (M&As), are becoming significant transactions of local and global economies as they continually happen necessitating huge amount of resources. While some business combinations succeeded, other deals however failed. As such, this paper generally explores the relationship between business combination and firm value. It specifically studies the effect of business combination on firm value and on profitability and the effect of profitability on firm value. It then further investigates the mediating effect of profitability on such relationship. Using explanatory research design, it applies total enumeration sampling method to include only 25 Philippine publicly listed companies that underwent completed merger and acquisition excluding those firms of financial nature and of incomplete data. Further, it utilizes their annual reports for the three years before and after the year of business combination, thus it deals with 175 samples. Employing PLS-SEM, it establishes that business combination has significant negative effect on firm value and has significant positive effect on profitability. It also reveals that profitability has no significant effect on firm value and does not mediate the relationship between business combination and firm value

Many of the serious today's environmental problems are, directly or indirectly, caused by humans' irresponsible behavior. The current study, then, aimed at modeling the environmental behavior of tourists in destinations found in Birjand, Iran. The effects of independent constructs such as environmental perception (P), satisfaction (S), attitude (A), and active involvement (AI) on the dependent construct of the environmental behavior (EB) of tourists were investigated. The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used via SmartPLS 3 software. According to the results, the reliability of the model, and Cronbach's alpha values of latent and observant variables were acceptable (EB=0.851, P= 0.898, S=0.920, A=0.852, AI= 0.903); the combined reliability (rho or CR) for constructs ranged between 0.874 and 0.931. The average variance extracted (AVE) for EB, P, S, A, and AI were measured at 0.385, 0.555, 0.530, 0.530, and 0.595, respectively. The correlation between latent variables, according to Fornell and Larker method showed that the A and AI constructs were more positively correlated with each other. As a whole, the results showed that perception has a significant and positive effect on the tourists' environmental behavior in natural and historical destinations. This is while no significant correlation was found between satisfaction, attitude, and active involvement. This research provided a scientific basis for tourism management and offered some suggestions that can be useful for formulating policies, and wise tourism development in the context of environmental protection in relevant administrative departments.

Tourism firms have been severely affected by the COVID-19 crisis as a result of lockdowns and strict health regulations imposed by national authorities (Kreiner & Ram, 2020). As the tourism industry has started to gradually reopen, tourism firms have been applying a wide array of responses, ranging from compliance with health measures to innovating their services, adopting new technologies and searching for new customer segments (Alonso et al., 2020). Some studies have addressed firms’ resilience and begun identifying the strategies adopted by tourism and hospitality firms to cope with the COVID-19 crisis (Breier et al., 2021; Kaushal & Srivastava, 2020; Lai & Wong, 2020). However, evidence about the effects of different types of responses on firm performance is still lacking. This study aims to provide a first assessment of the effects of three groups of responses to the COVID-19 crisis – marketing, cost cutting and organizational changes – on customer loyalty and economic performance. In particular, this study proposes a model employing partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) using a sample of agritourism firms.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13032917.2021.1916551

Business combinations, commonly known as mergers and acquisitions (M&As), are becoming significant transactions of local and global economies as they continually happen necessitating huge amount of resources. While some business combinations succeeded, other deals however failed. As such, this paper generally explores the relationship between business combination and firm value. It specifically studies the effect of business combination on firm value and on profitability and the effect of profitability on firm value. It then further investigates the mediating effect of profitability on such relationship. Using explanatory research design, it applies total enumeration sampling method to include only 25 Philippine publicly listed companies that underwent completed merger and acquisition excluding those firms of financial nature and of incomplete data. Further, it utilizes their annual reports for the three years before and after the year of business combination, thus it deals with 175 samples. Employing PLS-SEM, it establishes that business combination has significant negative effect on firm value and has significant positive effect on profitability. It also reveals that profitability has no significant effect on firm value and does not mediate the relationship between business combination and firm value.

The dimensions of the triangular relationship between companies, the state and the society has been rapidly transforming ever since the dawn of the present millennium and firms can no longer continue to act as independent entities regardless of the interest of the general public. The relationship between companies and society has been evolving from that of philanthropic coexistence to that where the mutual interest of all the stakeholders are given paramount importance. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become one of the key elements of sustainable business. In today's highly competitive globalised business world, success of a business depends on its acceptability to all stakeholders-shareholders, customers, employees, suppliers, government and general public. An examination of the present status of corporate social responsibility (CSR) would be an ideal starting ground for the conceptual development of suitable corporate business practices for emerging markets. Kerala, has achieved social and educational development comparable to most Western nations and has been acclaimed worldwide for its Kerala model of development though this achievement is not yet matched by industrial growth or economic development. With over a thousand companies registered and head quartered within the state coupled with many national and international ones operating in the state, will this regulatory mandate on CSR spending be a shot in the arm in social development of the state is a question that seeks answer from various quarters. The combined CSR spending in Kerala by all the qualified entities put together will work out to be around Rs 350 core to Rs 400 crore i. It is in the backdrop, the study examined the CSR effectiveness of seven drivers namely regulatory compliances, brand reputation, employee interests, community concerns, investor interests, environmental interests and sustainability initiatives as identified by companies in Kerala in design and implementation of their CSR initiatives. The study relied on structural equation modelling based on partial least squares path modelling (PLS-PM) using data collected from 91 executives, who are directly involved in CSR planning and implementation, from companies in Kerala-both in public and private sector. The first order constructs as mentioned as drivers of CSR were modelled with five measured variables each and the second order construct namely effectiveness of CSR was evaluated using standardised construct scores of the first-order constructs as indicators. The responses to measured variables were obtained on a 5-point scale and the parameters of model were tested for internal reliability, convergent and discriminant validity and fitness indices. The results of analysis revealed that overall model fit was adequate, with all the validity conditions being met, all the drivers of CSR showed a high coefficient of determination of more than 0.43 except the employee interests which showed an R-squared of only 0.32. The dependent variable namely sustainability where all the other 6 drivers converge showed an R-squared of 0.70.