Jun (Justin) Li

Purpose: This study aims to examine how coping strategies influence posttraumatic stress symptoms and subsequent behavioral outcomes among airline employees and travelers following aviation crises. Design/methodology/approach: Grounded in the transactional model of stress and coping, survey data were collected from 598 respondents, including airline employees and travelers. The study integrates structural modeling with configurational analysis (fsQCA) of qualitative interview data to examine both net relationships and configurations of conditions associated with behavioral outcomes. Findings: Problem-focused and emotion-focused coping enhances employees’ readiness for return-to-work and reduces travelers’ flight avoidance, whereas avoidance coping increases avoidance behavior but shows no impact on work readiness. Social support seeking strengthens employee recovery but has limited influence on traveler behavior. Posttraumatic stress symptoms mediate the relationships between coping strategies and behavioral outcomes. Media exposure weakens adaptive coping effects and amplifies avoidance, while perceived organizational support enhances recovery. Configurational findings reveal asymmetric pathways, showing that flight avoidance may arise even under low stress when avoidance coping and media exposure combine, whereas return-to-work readiness can occur despite high stress when institutional support is present. Practical implications: The findings highlight the importance of strengthening organizational support systems and managing media communication to facilitate workforce recovery and restore traveler confidence after aviation crises. Originality/value: This study integrates employee and traveler perspectives within a unified coping framework and demonstrates how both individual relationships and stakeholder-specific configurations are associated with post-crisis behavioral responses.

Purpose: This study aims to examine how digital endorser visual style (cartoonish vs realistic) influences purchase intention for elderly tourism products. It investigates two mediating roles. These are perceived warmth and competence based on the Stereotype Content Model. It also investigates the moderating effect of information framing (positive vs negative) on these relationships. Design/methodology/approach: The research is through series of experiments. The visual style manipulation is validated by a pretest. Study 1 focuses on the direct impact on purchase intention. In Study 2, two parallel mediators, perceived warmth and competence, are introduced. The moderating effect of information framing is explored using a 2 × 2 between subjects design in Study 3. PROCESS models are used to analyze data. Findings: Cartoon endorsers had more impact on purchase intention than realistic endorsers. They do this by improving the warmth perception. No such effect is evident in perceived competence. Moderation of this pattern is provided by information framing. The warmth benefits of cartoonish styles are enhanced by positive framing. Negative framing enhances the competence appeal of realistic styles. These two framings trigger different persuading strands. Originality/value: This study is an extension of the Stereotype Content Model to the case of digital endorser design in elderly tourism. This is a unique identification of warmth and competence paths activated in a context dependent manner. This provides a delicate structure to integrate picture and message components. The results offer practical tips to build successful age-friendly digital marketing campaigns.

This study explores the impact of tourists’ viewing frequency of travel reality shows on willingness to travel through cultivation theory and uses & gratification theory, along with a pilot study and three scenario-based experiments. Results indicate that viewers with high (vs. low) viewing frequency of travel reality shows evoke greater willingness to travel, further testing the serial mediating effect between destination image and perceived destination attractiveness. Additionally, this study reveals the moderating role of tourists’ likability of travel reality shows. The findings not only broaden the application of these theories in travel reality show-induced tourism but also provide practical insights for destination marketers.

Atmosphere is an important integrative environmental factor, where specific emotional and cultural experiences are central to shaping tourists’ behaviors. Despite its importance, the processes through which it influences outcomes are not well understood. Its interaction with social media advertising has also been insufficiently studied. This study investigates how atmosphere (low vs. high) affects travel intentions, which expands the research on atmosphere in tourism. Through three studies, the results reveal that a higher level of perceived atmosphere can increase travel intention. Cultural identity and emotional arousal serve mediate in the effect of atmosphere. In addition, the moderating role of advertising content is supported. Additionally, compared with firm-generated content, the influence of perceived atmosphere is stronger when the content is user-generated. This study offers implications for destination managers to use atmospheres and genuine social media content to draw tourists.

Queuing is almost inevitable in tourist service experiences, but most tourists are reluctant to wait. Drawing on prospect theory, this study examined how comparative framing influences tourists’ waiting intention. Across three scenario-based experiments, the research found that, compared with non-comparative framing, comparative framing can effectively enhance tourists’ waiting intention. Perceived waiting costs play a mediating role in the impact of the comparative framing on waiting intention. Additionally, the queuing settings play a moderating role, and the mediating effect is stronger in physical queues than in virtual queues. This research shifts the analytical focus from objective waiting time to the framing of waiting-time information, reveals a psychological cost assessment mechanism based on reference points, and enriches the theoretical explanation of tourists’ immediate decision-making in tourism services. It also provides practical references for optimizing service information and queue management during peak hours.

As chatbots gradually replace human employees on the front lines, how to optimize their services to promote value co-creation between the older adults and robots has become a key topic to tap the potential of the elderly market. Grounded in social presence theory, this research explores how chatbot language form affects older adults’ value co-creation intention. Through three experiments, the results revealed that the use of dialect increases cognitive effort, social presence, and enhances older adults’ value co-creation intention. In addition, the research also shows that this language effect varies in different situations. For the older adults with a high need for interaction, the use of dialects can effectively improve their value co-creation intention. However, for older adults with a low need for interaction, the effect was not significant. The study provides insights into how to flexibly use language strategies, such as dialects, based on the varying needs of different senior groups. It aims to encourage greater participation from older adults in value co-creation and further develop the senior market.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how AI-generated image labels influence consumers’ purchase intention of cuisine, by revealing the psychological mechanisms via perceived effort, perceived image authenticity and perceived taste, and further examining the moderating effect of price premiums in food marketing. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses three scenario-based experiments. Experiment 1 studies AI-generated label versus non-label to reveal direct effects on purchase intention. Experiment 2 examines the serial mediation via perceived image authenticity, perceived effort and perceived taste. Experiment 3 examines the moderating effect of price premiums using a 2 × 2 factorial design with online participants to mimic real consumers’ behaviors. Findings: The results show that an AI-generated label greatly reduces purchase intentions compared to non-label through decreasing perceived effort and perceived image authenticity, which further leads to lowered perceived taste. The negative effect of AI-generated label on purchase intention is amplified under high price premiums. Originality/value: This study advances the traditional trust perspective to uncover how AI-generated label influences consumers’ value judgments. This study shows that AI-generated label not only decreases perceived authenticity but also weakens consumers’ inference of merchant effort, which makes consumers further decrease their perceived taste. Therefore, it unveils an alternative signaling mechanism for consumers’ responses to AI-generated content. Moreover, by incorporating AI labeling and price premium as dual signals, this study clarifies why and when AI-generated labels decrease consumers’ purchase intentions.