Given its insular geographic location, Taiwan inherently benefits from a natural advantage in developing its shipping industry, positioning it as a critical sector for the nation’s economic advancement. The shipping industry operates within a highly competitive maritime market, wherein ocean freight forwarders provide services on a global scale, thus classifying them within the international transportation and logistics industry. The global competition from logistics peers renders the services highly substitutable. This study breaks new ground by integrating the SERVQUAL scale with advanced methodologies such as the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) to assess and enhance service quality in the shipping industry. By segmenting the five dimensions of SERVQUAL, the study delineates 19 specific evaluation indicators. The expert questionnaires developed and analyzed through AHP and DEMATEL reveal a previously unidentified link between specific service quality dimensions and customer satisfaction. The findings from this analysis offer crucial insights into the critical success factors (CSFs) of service quality and their causal interrelationships, thereby establishing a model for service standards. By leveraging the identified CSFs and understanding the causal relationships among these key factors, ocean freight forwarders can enhance and optimize their value propositions and resources. This proactive approach is expected to significantly improve service quality, fortify core competitiveness, and elevate customer support and satisfaction levels, ultimately leading to an increased market share and ensuring sustainable business operations.

Given the multifaceted nature of crime trends shaped by a range of social, economic, and demographic variables, grasping the fundamental drivers behind crime patterns is pivotal for crafting effective crime deterrence methodologies. This investigation adopted a systematic literature review technique to distill thirty key factors from a corpus of one hundred scholarly articles. Utilizing the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for diminishing dimensionality facilitated a nuanced understanding of the determinants deemed essential in influencing crime trends. The findings highlight the necessity of tackling issues such as inequality, educational deficits, poverty, unemployment, insufficient parental guidance, and peer influence in the realm of crime prevention efforts. Such knowledge empowers policymakers and law enforcement bodies to optimize resource allocation and roll out interventions grounded in empirical evidence, thereby fostering a safer and more secure societal environment.

This study investigates the impact of Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) on wage dynamics in Slovakia and Slovenia, with a particular emphasis on gender-specific effects in post-Communist emerging markets. By analyzing wage outcomes for male and female workers separately, the research reveals potential disparities in FDIs-driven wage growth. Employing econometric techniques and longitudinal data, the study explores the nuanced relationship between FDIs, wage policies, and economic development over time. A temporal lag in FDIs analysis suggests that Slovakia and Slovenia have experienced differing impacts from past foreign capital flows. In Slovakia, significant correlations indicate persistent FDIs influence and a pronounced effect on gender wage disparities. In Slovenia, more moderate correlations and FDIs volatility suggest a less stable relationship between external investment and wage dynamics. The originality of this research lies in its comparative approach, examining two distinct post-Communist nations and identifying unique country-specific patterns and trends. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of FDI’s role in labor market management and its implications for gender equality in two European emerging economies.

This research aimed to 1) evaluate the demographic characteristics, economic, social, and environmental conditions, and characteristics of the senior people in Ranong province, 2) discover the most relevant work characteristic factors for the older persons, and 3) propose appropriate work characteristics model for older people to improve quality of life. This mixed-methods research, for the quantitative part, utilizes the techniques of MRA & CFA with a sample size of 378 individuals, and for the qualitative part, utilizes a documentary study, in-depth interviews with 19 key informants, and a focus group of 17 individuals. The quantitative data were analyzed using a statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS), and content and categorization analysis with a triangulation verification were used for qualitative data. The results showed that: 1) Ranong province is blessed with rich resources, having minerals that can generate income for the province, life-long learning is given priority in senior school to enhance knowledge and necessary life skills, 2) from the regression analysis, the six predicted work characteristic factors; physical, emotional, autonomous, resistant, low-technology and safety were found relevant with statistically significant at 0.05, and the CFA consistency indices also withstood with the six dimensions above, 3) the appropriate work characteristics is articulated in the form of PEARLS model where physical, emotional, autonomous, resistant, low-technology and safety dimensions are the key.

The primary objective of this paper is to explore the impact of household policies in both Saudi Arabia and Nigeria towards achieving efficient and sustainable economic growth in the 21st century. Fundamentally, the objective of the study was sparked by the basic factors of comparison the importance of culture in international relations, challenges related to terrorism which impede adequate implementations of economic policies, trade facilitation and logistics to enhance economic growth and cross-border movement of goods and services. Systematic literature review (SLR) and content analysis (CA) were used as methodological approaches of the paper. The articles explored for review were accessed using visualization of similarities (VOS) by exploring different database such as: journals, core collection of Web of Science (WOS), peer review sources and library sources. The findings demonstrated that Saudi Arabia and Nigeria have different policies regarding households in achieving sustainable economic growth. On one hand, in Saudi Arabia, the focus is on the economic burden associated with chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and the out-of-pocket spending among individuals diagnosed with these diseases. In addition, the study found that households with older and more educated members, an employed head of household, higher socioeconomic status, health insurance coverage, and urban residency had significantly higher out-of-pocket expenditure in achieving sustainable economic development. On the other hand, Nigeria’s policy is centered around trade liberalization and its impact on household welfare as an integral part of sustainable economic development. The policies implemented in Saudi Arabia and Nigeria have implications for the well-being of their citizens. In Saudi Arabia, the household policies have significantly impacted the quality of life (QoL) of households, particularly those with low income, large size, male-led, urban, and with elderly heads. In Nigeria, trade liberalization policies have mixed welfare implications for households in the aspects of real income, they also induce unemployment in key sectors, such as agriculture and industry. To mitigate negative effects, it is suggested that Saudi Arabia should effectively address chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) among the households while Nigeria should efficiently pursue trade liberalization on a sectorial basis, focusing on sectors that do not severely undermine household welfare.

In the process of seeking sustainable development, enterprises have chosen international business strategy. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the degree of internationalization of Chinese listed firms and financial reporting quality, as well as whether audit committees can moderate the impact of enterprise internationalization on financial reporting quality. The empirical analysis results of Chinese listed manufacturing firms from 2014 to 2018 show that: the degree of corporate internationalization has a significant U-shaped relationship with earnings management. This new finding solves the problem that scholars have inconsistent views on the internationalization of enterprises and the quality of financial reporting. The study also found that audit committees with experience working in accounting firms can inhibit firm earnings management behavior in the early stage of internationalization; audit committees with experience working overseas can inhibit firm earnings management behavior in the later stage of internationalization; the higher the remuneration of audit committee experts, the more it can inhibit firm earnings management behavior in the early stage of internationalization. In the later stage of internationalization, the higher the remuneration of audit committee experts, it helps the earnings management behavior of firms. This provides new evidence on the functioning of the audit committee’s role; however, the independence of the audit committee and the proportion of financial experts do not have a significant effect on the inhibition of earnings management.