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.

This article presents an analysis of Russia’s outward foreign direct investment based on the balance of payments. The country has been affected by the “Dutch disease,” characterized by a heavy reliance on the mining industry and revenues from oil and gas exports. The financial account reveals a consistent outflow of capital from Russia, surpassing inflows. A significant portion of domestic investment goes abroad, often to offshore destinations. This capital outflow has not been fully offset by foreign capital inflows. These findings underscore the challenges faced by Russia in managing its financial position, including the need to address capital outflows, diversify the economy, and reduce dependence on raw material exports. Furthermore, this article aims to identify the presence of Russian capital in OECD countries by comparing data from the Central Bank of Russia and the OECD. The analysis reveals significant discrepancies between the two datasets, primarily due to unavailable or confidential information in the OECD dataset. These variations can also be attributed to differences in methodology and the specific nature of Russian outward direct investments, particularly those involving offshore jurisdictions. As a result, accurately determining the extent of Russian capital in OECD countries based on the available data becomes a challenging task (including for the tourism industry as well).

This study analyzes the highly disruptive transportation business in Indonesia. The purpose of observation is to completely synthesize disruptive transportation that causes bad externalities in society. Data sources come from primary data of interviews and secondary data of related literature. The research method uses critical qualitative with a combination of in-depth interviews with several stakeholders. Key findings suggest that trust, consistency, capital ownership and proximity of new entrants to incumbents are important in disruptive innovation processes, empirical implications that transportation in Indonesia has undergone a definite economic shift. The results showed that although the government has publicly expressed its full support for any individual who will develop a business in the digital economy model, it is not effective enough to be consistent in the transportation business. Policy recommendations include adaptive training incentive programs for incumbent groups and accelerated funding assistance for new entrant groups, in addition to strengthening active collaboration between the government and the private sector is urgently needed.

Fraudulence in cosmetic ingredients is becoming increasingly prevalent, alongside the rising demand and utilization of cosmetics within the populace. One of the whitening agents still utilized in cosmetics is mercury, present in forms such as mercury chloramide (HgNH₂Cl₂) and mercury chloride (HgCl₂). Prolonged mercury exposure can have adverse health effects. To address this issue, alternative mercury analysis methods in samples have been developed, including the utilization of silver nanoparticles amalgamated with sweet potato starch as a stabilizing agent. This paper aims to delve into the roles of silver nanoparticle AgNO₃ and sweet potato starch (as a stabilizer) as a sensor for mercury detection, which can be applied in cosmetic products. Detection of mercury utilizing nanoparticles is based on the Surface Plasmon Resonance phenomenon, which endows a high level of selectivity and sensitivity toward the presence of mercury metal ions. When interaction occurs between mercury metal and silver nanoparticles, the liquid undergoes a color change from yellowish-brown to transparent. This phenomenon arises from the oxidation of AgO (yellow) to Ag⁺ ions (transparent) by the mercury metal. Consequently, a silver nanoparticle sensor utilizing sweet potato starch as a stabilizing agent exhibits the potential to detect mercury metal within a substance with high efficacy.