Factors influencing medical tourism adoption in Malaysia: A DEMATEL-Fuzzy TOPSIS approach

Therapeutic landscapes encapsulate healing and recovery notions in natural and built environmental settings. Tourists' perceptions determine their decision making of health and wellness tourism consumption. Researchers struggle with the conceptualization of the term 'therapeutic landscapes' across disciplines. Drawing on extant literature searched in nine databases, this scoping review identifies different dimensions of therapeutic landscapes. Out of identified 178 literature sources, 124 met the inclusion criteria of identified keywords. We review the contribution and the potential of environmental psychology in understanding tourist behavior to promote health and wellness tourism destinations in a post COVID-19 context. We develop and propose a conceptual framework comprising: (1) perceived goodness of therapeutic landscapes, (2) health and wellness consumption, (3) COVID-19 pandemic perceived health and wellness risk, (4) place attachment, and (5) re-visitation. We propose measurement scales and discuss implications and major issues in the immediate and post the COVID-19 pandemic to inform future research.

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Health, Wellness, and Place Attachment During and Post Health Pandemics

This study presents the interacting phenomena of perceptions of tourist destination online content (TDOC) and tourists' behavioral intentions with a mediating role of tourists' satisfaction, which is as yet under-explored in hospitality and tourism research. A model based on three main constructs, namely TDOC (with sub-constructs of online information quality and user-friendly accessibility), satisfaction, and tourists' behavioral intentions [with sub-constructs of intentions to visit a tourist destination and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM)], is presented to determine the growth of tourism business with the internet. Data were collected via a questionnaire-based survey from 413 tourists staying at hotels in Lahore city in Pakistan. Partial least square structural equation modeling was used to statistically analyze the gathered data. The findings indicate that tourists' perceptions of TDOC directly influence their behavioral intentions, while tourists' satisfaction exerts a mediating influence between tourists' perceptions of TDOC and their behavioral intentions. Taking advantage of an economical and widespread online environment, destination marketing organizations could attract more tourists by fostering confidence in TDOC and positive eWOM to remain competitive in the long run. Important theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

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Online Tourism Information and Tourist Behavior: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis Based on a Self-Administered Survey.

The impact of celebrity endorsements on consumers’ perceptions of the Nike sports brand.

This study aims to enhance the theoretical foundations of servitization research by establishing a theoretical connection with complexity management. The authors develop a conceptual framework to describe complexity management mechanisms in servitization and digital platforms' specific role in allowing synergies between complexity reduction and absorption mechanisms.,A theory adaptation approach is used. Theory adaptation introduces new perspectives and conceptualization to the domain theory (servitization, with a focus on the role of digital platforms) by informing it with a method theory (complexity management).,This study provides four key contributions to the servitization literature: (1) connecting the servitization and complexity-management terminologies, (2) identifying and classifying complexity-management mechanisms in servitization, (3) conceptualizing digital platforms' role in servitization complexity management and (4) recognizing digital platforms' complexity-management synergies.,This study highlights that by using digital platforms in servitization and understanding the platform approach more thoroughly, companies can gain new capabilities and opportunities to manage and leverage complexity.

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A complexity management approach to servitization: the role of digital platforms

A wide difference of opinion exists about the content and composition of emotions. Advertising may influence an audience and their buying decisions about products and services. The objective of this study is to better conceptualize how women emotionally respond to emotional advertisements (EAs). The variant views are integrated into an ACE model, composed of subordinate levels of emotions (E), celebrity endorsements (C), and appeal drivers (A). This empirical study examines women’s emotional response using data from 240 Chinese women respondents. The study participants were invited to develop ACE mix based advertisements and fill out questionnaires. PLS-SEM analysis, a novel approach in ACE advertisement development and its applicability to consumer behavior, was used. The results show that showbiz celebrities expressing the emotion of happiness with music and color make the most effective ACE mix to influence the consumption behavior of women. The results are significantly mediated by attention levels and are widely applicable in the burgeoning advertising industry. The study also calls for further research with different ACE mixes in different contexts and on different audiences. It also opens doors for policy making and an appropriate understanding of women’s consumption behavior in the Chinese context.

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Want to make me emotional? The influence of emotional advertisements on women’s consumption behavior

The journey from an allopathic to natural treatment approach: A scoping review of medical tourism and health systems

An overview is given of latest trends in medical tourism and its conceptualization with an industry analysis. The rapidly evolving health awareness and preferences of medical tourists, in tandem with medical treatments’ higher levels of affordability across the globe, have changed the global medical tourism industry sharply in recent decades, and many international health systems are being opened to patients’ greater cross-border movements. A scoping literature review (1990-2016) depicts the recent boom in medical tourism as presenting certain opportunities, and uncovers many challenges which are involved in its policymaking. These developments denote greater mobility of places (P) for medical treatments, affordability (A) levels to bear the inflated treatment costs (C), changing preferences of medical tourists with the passage of time (T) and participation of third party administrators (TPAs) in their overall operations. The study espouses a rise in medical tourism from the United States (US), and participating countries in Europe, Asia and Africa with participating countries, identifies a need for profound policymaking, and highlights the importance and applicability of TPC-TPAs link chain in medical tourism context. This study further recommends understanding the role of industry stakeholders, particularly governments, in the policymaking of medical tourism in order to steer the industry appropriately.

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Changing Preferences, Moving Places and Third Party Administrators: A Scoping Review of Medical Tourism Trends (1990-2016)

This paper proposes a bipolar quasi-Z-source active neutral point clamped inverter (QZS-ANPCI) topology. It acts as a buck/boost inverter (3-phase, 3-level) to integrate renewable energy resources under their fluctuating DC voltages. We propose a symmetrical/unsymmetrical boost modulation control technique to mitigate the DC-link unbalance voltage problem in an ANPC inverter. This worthwhile control technique exploits voltage-current closedloops on AC and DC sides to regulate the desired parameters. Moreover, the constant boost control (CBC) modulation has provided a switching sequence that generates a symmetrical/unsymmetrical full shoot-through (FST) state for boosting input DC voltage in the proposed inverter. Detailed loss and efficiency analysis is carried out to show its superior performance under the proposed scheme. Furthermore, the total harmonic distortion (THD) of the proposed QZS-ANPCI meets IEEE Standard-519. Simulink/MATLAB (MathWorks, USA) and PSIM (Powersim, USA) software programs are used to simulate the proposed topology. To verify the theoretical proposals and simulation results, we have developed an experimental prototype setup (1 kW). Both simulation results and experimental data show satisfactory agreement and support the theoretical postulates.

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A quasi-Z-source active neutral point clamped inverter topology employingsymmetrical/unsymmetrical boost modulation control scheme for renewableenergy resources

Salman Majeed

Papers

Want to make me emotional? The influence of emotional advertisements on women’s consumption behavior

The journey from an allopathic to natural treatment approach: A scoping review of medical tourism and health systems

Changing Preferences, Moving Places and Third Party Administrators: A Scoping Review of Medical Tourism Trends (1990-2016)

A quasi-Z-source active neutral point clamped inverter topology employingsymmetrical/unsymmetrical boost modulation control scheme for renewableenergy resources