The influence of individual values on internet use: A multinational study

How privacy concerns and cultural differences affect public opinion during the COVID-19 pandemic: a case study

Purpose

COVID-19, an infectious disease first identified in China, has resulted in an ongoing pandemic all over the world. Most of the countries have been experiencing a difficult period during the fighting of this pandemic. The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of privacy concerns and cultural differences on public opinion related to the pandemic. The authors conducted a comparative analysis of public opinion in the US and in China as a case study, in order to determine the results.

Design/methodology/approach

National policies on important issues faced during the COVID-19 pandemic in the US and in China were examined through a comparative analysis. The authors used text clustering and visualization to mine public opinion on two popular social media platforms, Twitter and Weibo. From the perspectives of concern for privacy and of national culture, this study combines qualitative and quantitative analysis to discover the acceptance level of national policies by the public in the two countries.

Findings

The anti-pandemic policies and measures of the US and China reflect the different characteristics of their respective political systems and national cultures. When considering the culture of the US, it is hard to establish and enforce a rigorous regulation on either mask wearing in public or home quarantine on the national level. The opinions of US people are diverse, regarding national COVID-19 policies, but they are rather unified on privacy issues. On the other hand, Chinese people show a high acceptance of national policies based on their mask-wearing customs and their culture of collectivism.

Originality/value

Prior studies have paid insufficient attention to the ways in which user privacy and cultural difference affect public opinion on national policies between the US and China. This case study that compares public opinion on current and topical issues which are closely bound up with public life shows originality, as it innovatively provides a cross-cultural perspective on the research of public opinion dissemination during emergencies by considering the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Traveling Responsibly to Ecofriendly Destinations: An Individual-Level Cross-Cultural Comparison between the United Kingdom and China

Background: Cross-cultural comparisons have remained an unexplored area in responsible tourism, and therefore, the current study aims to develop a conceptual framework and test it across cultures. The purpose of the present study was to formulate and cross-culturally confirm a research model in the context of responsible tourism. Methods: Schwartz’s personal values and theory of planned behavior are integrated into a theoretical framework in examining tourists’ revisiting intentions to ecofriendly destinations. Data were collected from experienced tourists of the United Kingdom and China and a comparison was made. Results: The findings indicate that our research model holds true for both groups; however, we observed some noteworthy differences between the two groups of samples. The findings offer suggestions to responsible tourism practitioners considering cross-cultural differences while developing tourism strategies. Conclusion: This study has some important implications for tourism marketers. Given our results, marketers should add cultural features into their marketing campaigns and devise strategies that can target a cross-cultural audience. We acknowledge research limitations and suggest future research directions to responsible tourism scholars.

Knowledge management and academic information behaviour

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of metaliteracy on collaborative and individual information behaviour (IB) among academic staff. The goal is to observe the impact of these competencies on knowledge management (KM) and IB in research tasks connected with the humanities and social sciences.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents an implementation of two combined frameworks into a study on the IB of academics: metacompetencies described by Mackey and Jacobson in the metaliteracy model and Burke’s triple-A model. By using the Dervin’s micro-moment time-line interview framework, authors try to observe the state of development of information literacy and other supportive competencies among younger lecturers and researchers.

Findings

Scientists develop patterns of collaborative behaviour based on seven metaliteracy areas in KM.

Research limitations/implications

The study did not include students and other groups related to the academic environment. Their involvement in information processes is a very wide issue and should be the subject of a separate article.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to research development in the area of information literacy as a KM efficiency factor. IB in this paper is a broad concept, in which the development of metaliteracy is an important aspect of lecturers’ and researchers’ KM and collaboration skills.