The coronavirus pandemic has reinforced the need for sustainable, smart tourism and local travel, with rural destinations gaining in their popularity and leading to increased potential of smart rural tourism. However, these processes need adjustments to the current trends, incorporating new transformative business concepts and marketing approaches. In this paper we provide real life examples of new marketing approaches, together with new business models within the context of the use of new digital technologies. Via hermeneutic research approach, consisting of the secondary analysis of the addressed subject of smart rural tourism in adversity of the COVID-19 and 6 semi-structured interviews, the importance of technology is underscored in transforming rural tourism to smart rural tourist destinations. The respondents in the interview section were chosen based on their direct involvement in the presented examples and geographical location, i.e. France, Slovenia and Spain, where presented research examples were developed, concretely within European programmes, i.e. Interreg, Horizon and Rural Development Programme (RDP). Interviews were taking place between 2022 and 2023 in person, email or via Zoom. This two-phased study demonstrates that technology is important in transforming rural tourism to smart tourist destinations and that it ushers new approaches that seem particularly useful in applying to rural areas, creating a rural digital innovation ecosystem, which acts as s heuristic rural tourist model that fosters new types of tourism, i.e. smart rural tourism.

Recently, there has been a lot of buzz on social media, particularly in the form of vlogs, about newly launched semi-high speed trains in India popularly known as Vande Bharat Express. However, no information is available about the extent to which people trust the vlogs promoting the trains and the trains themselves. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the impact of watching vlogs about semi-high speed trains on the trust and attitude towards them, and how they perceive the risks associated. This study is guided by the trust transfer theory to investigate how trust transference can lead to a traveler’s intent to use semi-high speed trains. This study involved 338 participants. The relationship between variables was examined using SmartPLS 4 software. The findings indicate that trust in semi-high speed trains can be established through vlogs leading to intention to use. On the theoretical side, it provides insight into how trust, attitude, and perceived risk can affect the adoption of new technology, while on the practical side, it helps to understand how vlog coverage can be used as a tool to increase trust and ultimately drive adoption. Vlog coverage, trust in vlog content, trust in semi-high speed trains and behavioural intention altogether are not well understood in current literature despite the important implication for managers, academicians and consumers alike. This study contributes to the field of transportation and railways, social media and communication, and hospitality and tourism research. The study helps policy makers to understand users’ characteristics regarding the latest social media tools and adopt them accordingly to provide a better governance policy.

Amidst China’s escalating aging population challenge, the efficacy and quality of private elderly care services are garnering increasing scrutiny. This research focuses on evaluating how service quality and customer perceived value influence the loyalty of elderly clients, with customer satisfaction acting as a mediating factor. Grounded in established service quality frameworks and loyalty theories, the study utilizes a quantitative methodology, administering surveys across eight private elderly care institutions in H city, China. A total of 600 surveys were collected, providing a comprehensive data set that encompasses five dimensions of service quality—tangibility, assurance, responsiveness, reliability, and empathy—as well as customer perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to validate the hypothesized relationships. Findings reveal that service quality significantly boosts customer perceived value and satisfaction, which in turn markedly enhance customer loyalty. Notably, customer satisfaction emerged as a crucial mediator between service quality and loyalty, as well as between perceived value and loyalty. This study not only advances theoretical understanding of service quality impacts but also offers actionable insights for enhancing service delivery and customer loyalty in the context of private elderly care.

Human resources are considered an important resource for companies today because the knowledge that a person has can be used to become an organisation’s competitive advantage. In addition, digital marketing has an important role in determining the performance of business entities because we have now entered the digital era, which certainly cannot be separated from the influence of technology on marketing through social media. Therefore, this study aims to examine the effect of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) in digital marketing on business entity performance, which is determined by digital marketing in a business entity. The data in this research was collected by distributing questionnaires to 455 Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia. Data analysis used the Moderated Regression Analysis (MRA) method. The research results show that strategic human resource management variables influence business performance, and the support of digital marketing capabilities and activities strengthens this influence. Based on the results of this research, existing business entities must strengthen organizational performance by strengthening human resources in basic soft skills and hard skills and skills in digital marketing and improving marketing activities using digitalization.

This paper utilizes an advanced Network Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model to examine the impact of mobile payment on the efficiency of Taiwan banking industry. Inheriting the literature, we separate the banking operation process into two stages, namely profitability and marketability. Mobile payment is then considered as the core factor in the second stage. Our paper discovers network DEA model can effectively enhance the analysis of banking industry’s efficiency, and mobile payment has a notable impact on Taiwan banking industry. Regarding the profitability stage, there is only one efficient bank in 2019 and 2022, respectively. These banks also perform better in terms of “mobile payment production”. In the marketability stage, there is also only one bank in 2021 and one bank in 2022, that can reach to unique efficiency score. This indicates many banks attempt to increase earnings per share through investing in mobile payment services. However, the achievement still needs more wait. This leads to the fact that no bank can reach the ultimate overall efficiency. Within our sample, we also find that regarding promoting mobile payment services, Private Banks outperform Government Banks.

This article advocates for a fundamental shift in England’s legal approach to professional negligence, particularly within the domains of accounting and audit. English law should move away from its intricate and unclear case law surrounding professional negligence towards a clearly defined test for professional misconduct. Drawing upon a comparative analysis with the legal framework in the United States, where auditors are not shielded from liability under the law, the article highlights the need for a more consistent and accountable legal landscape in England. One of the main aspects that necessitates change is the proximity test, as set out in the Caparo case, which currently prevents auditors from being held liable for negligence to investors (as third parties)—despite investors relying on auditors for their professional skill to audit accounts. As investors rely on audited accounts when making financial decisions, a well-defined test for professional negligence should align English law with international standards and empower victims to seek compensation from the auditors themselves and/or the auditors’ professional indemnity insurance. Such a change would enhance trust and transparency in the financial domain.