Islamic Branding and Product Ingredients: Non-Muslim Dilemma in Consuming Halal Meat

Consuming halal foods is unarguably a matter of need for every Muslim. Today, the interest in eating halal cuisine is even growing not only for Muslims but also non-Muslims because the COVID-19 pandemic, which emerged lately, has emphasized a lack of people’s health and sanitation. This study intends to investigate how non-Muslim customers' perceptions of Islamic branding affected their purchase decisions of halal food during the COVID-19 pandemic. A number of 500 non-Muslim respondents took part in this study by answering questions for this quantitative research. The data was then analyzed using SmartPLS 3.0. The results revealed that there was a significant correlation between Islamic branding and product ingredients and non-Muslims intention of choosing halal food during COVID-19. This tendency is due to the fact that halal food is guaranteed qualified since it is delicious and prepared in clean and healthy way

Evaluating Service Quality Dimensions in Social Commerce: A Semi-Systematic Literature Review

The widespread adoption of social media platforms has significantly transformed consumer behavior and business practices. This paper attempts to provide a detailed overview of extant research on service quality in social commerce, shedding light on the dimensions that influence customer satisfaction and engagement. By examining 26 research articles, this study identifies common dimensions of service quality and highlights gaps in the current studies, offering recommendations for future research. The findings of this review highlight responsiveness, security/privacy, reliability, and communication as the most frequent dimensions of service quality in social commerce. The outcomes of this study lead to the development of new service quality models in social commerce and provide valuable insights for both scholars and practitioners

Working Capital and Financial Performance of Indonesian Manufacturing Companies: Before and During COVID-19

This research intends to reveal two important thoughts related to changes in working capital policies before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. This is essential since most companies’ working capital policy is aggressive during the normal period but conservative during the difficult period (such as COVID-19), where the demand for products fall off due to a decrease in people's purchasing power. Further, this study attempts to investigate the impact of working capital on company financial performance for both time periods. This study used a sample of manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesian capital market from 2017 to 2021. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was employed to assess changes in working capital policies while panel data regression was utilized as an analytical technique to test the impact of working capital policies on financial performance. This study reveals that, first, working capital policies measured by Cash Holding Level (CHL) expanded dramatically during COVID-19 but remained unchanged when being measured by Cash Interactive Effect (CIE) and Gross Working Capital Ratio (GWCR). Second, working capital policies prior to COVID-19 measured by CHL and CIE had a favorable and significant effect on company financial performance, measured by Return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE)

Responsible Consumption Behavior, Crucial Goals for Sustainable Development: A Systematic Review and Future Research Prospects

Responsible consumption has been recognized as one of the efforts to achieve the SDGs, but it still requires much refinement, and at the moment, there is little time left until 2030 to achieve the SDGs. The academic literature is carried out through the PRISMA method, analyzing the study descriptively and thematically, and performing analysis synthesis to report the study results. The findings of this study are that the concept of responsible consumer behavior in a sustainable context has evolved in a more specific direction, no longer being a general statement of direct support for the SDGs. However, its implementation focuses on consumers' consumption consciousness to make their choices wiser, influenced by various internal and external factors. Based on the study we have drawn up a framework for developing research topics on sustainable behavior so that further research can quickly implement research themes across various industrial sectors and from multiple perspectives

In-search of Trainee’ Performance Drivers: Evidence from Internship Training Program for Indonesian Vocational Teachers

This study investigates the drivers of trainee performance in upskilling/reskilling training program through an internship for vocational high school teachers. Data was gathered from 652 high school business and tourism teachers nationwide who had completed an internship program managed by BISPAR, Indonesia. The data, analyzed using SEM-PLS, results in two important findings. First, training inputs, covering trainee characteristics, training design, and work environment, are important determinants of trainees’ experience in the internship program. Among these factors, statistical results reveal that training design is the key to trainee reaction and learning during the training. Second, the total effect analysis shows that teachers’ behavior in transferring new competency acquired from the training is greatly influenced by the school’s environment factors. The managerial implication of these findings is thoroughly discussed

Modeling Adoption Behavior toward Islamic Microfinance: A Comparative Study Between Malaysia and Indonesia

This study probes the focal factors influencing the intention of young SME leaders to adopt Islamic microfinance. The researchers merged the existing model together with new variables, such as the perception of financial benefits and the perception of financial cost along with awareness, religiosity, and knowledge behind TPB through attitude in order to construct the aid to amplify the predictive efficacy and examine its effects on young SME leaders’ willingness to adopt Islamic microfinance. The research questionnaire was distributed using Google Forms to young SME leaders in Malaysia and Indonesia with a total sample of 300 respondents. Data obtained were then analyzed using partial least squares (PLS) by employing SmartPLS. This study reveals that perceived behavioral control and subjective norms have a positive significant impact on young SME leaders’ intention to adopt Islamic microfinance. The findings underscore the importance of these two elements toward the intention, awareness, and religiosity toward the intention through attitude

Immersive Experience in the Metaverse: Implications for Tourism and Business

By providing immersive and interactive experiences, the metaverse has been changing how tourists spend their vacation. It also presents new business challenges, such as gaming, marketing, education, and smart city industries. This research explores the opportunities and challenges presented by the metaverse in the tourism and business industries. This research also discusses the metaverse implications that can transform people's experience and consumption when traveling and consuming. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to explore the implications of the metaverse for the tourism and business industries. This study's findings reveal several examples of applying the metaverse and its implications. In addition, this study also discovered that the emergence of the metaverse significantly impacts the tourism and business sectors. In practice, the review findings make tourism and business stakeholders aware of the potential of this immersive technology. Tourism providers and business leaders might consider using the metaverse to promote tourism destination and their businesses and develop a system that can maximize the benefits of this immersive technology

The Impact of Business Ecosystem and Lifecycle on Start-up Creation Process – A Case Study of Indonesian Software Technology Start-ups

Establishing start-ups with a higher level of maturity requires a higher level of techniques, methods, and tools. However, presently established start-ups still encounter difficulties in determining how to quantify their performance and resilience with knowledge of the start-up development process. This study intends to investigate and evaluate the features of the start-up ecosystem throughout its existence. It employed an in-depth case study through interviews and observations to better understand the start-up ecosystem and lifecycle of Indonesian software technology start-up companies. This study utilized a qualitative approach based on multiple explanatory case studies. By providing a conceptual understanding of eight fundamental elements of the start-up ecosystem and lifecycle processes, this study contributes to the identification and investigation of start-up enterprises. The findings provide insight into how to describe start-up enterprises through a multiple-case study. This study discovered that each stage of the start-up lifecycle has a distinct emphasis on improving the ecosystem in order to create a more resilient start-up company

The Effect of Social Capital and Collaborative Knowledge Creation on E-Business Proactiveness and Organizational Agility in Creating Business Sustainability

Social capital is significant for an organization while collaborative knowledge creation and e-business proactiveness support the organization in every business process. This research intends to identify social capital and collaborative knowledge creation in influencing e-business proactiveness and organizational agility in order to obtain business sustainability. This research was conducted in three months on 24 companies from the Financial Services Industry (FSI) sector in Greater Jakarta, Indonesia, involving 155 respondents. The data was analyzed using the SEM-PLS. The results confirm that social capital positively impacts e-business proactiveness and collaborative knowledge creation in the FSI sector. Besides, e-business proactiveness and collaborative knowledge creation demonstrate a positive influence on the FSI’s organizational agility. Then, organizational agility significantly impacts business sustainability, while e-business proactiveness has yet to be proven to increase business sustainability in the FSI sector. The managerial implications of this research can be applied by organizations in developing social capital through social networks such as business partners in order to improve other aspects in creating business sustainability

Exploring the Persuasion Effects of Threatening Content in COVID-19 Advertising: The Roles of Threat Intensity and Sensation Seeking on Consumer Attitudes

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a wave of advertising activities advocating care for the community in a time of crisis. These COVID-19 ads often feature threatening depictions of the crisis as a persuasion strategy. Hence, the present study explores the persuasion effects of COVID-19 advertising by focusing on threat persuasion. Specifically, by adopting an online experiment with 724 U.S. participants, this study investigates how the threat intensity of crisis depictions featured in COVID-19 ads (low vs. medium vs. high) interact with individual differences in sensation-seeking in order to impact ads and brand attitudes, through the mediating pathways of positive moral emotions (warmth and gratitude) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) authenticity. The results reveal that the high-threat crisis depiction generates the lowest warmth and ad attitudes, whereas the medium-threat crisis depiction yields the strongest gratitude and better brand attitudes than the low-threat crisis depiction, but only for low sensation seekers (LSS). Also, for LSS, exposure to the medium-threat (versus low-threat) crisis depiction increases their gratitude, which leads to higher CSR authenticity, and, eventually results in more favorable ad or brand attitudes. On the contrary, for high sensation seekers, threat intensity does not have an indirect effect on the ad or brand attitudes via warmth, gratitude, and CSR authenticity