Journal Articles
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/7915
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Item Online or not online: the impact of business owner’s risk preference on the adoption of e-business(Springer Nature, 2023-09-21) Yang W; Wang L; Zhang XThe significant growth of internet users has driven businesses to develop their capacity in e-commerce and meet the increasing demand for e-consumption, e-services, and e-business. To gain the benefits of e-business, firms may choose to extend or transit their offline-operated businesses to online or hybrid modes. Opportunities are accompanied by risks in this process. Therefore, it is important to understand how business owners’ financial risk preferences affect their choice of business operation models, namely, online and offline operations. Using data from the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) in 2017 and 2019, this study examined the impacts of business owners’ risk preferences on e-business adoption, considering social insurance as a moderator on the relationship between risk effect and online business operation. In addition, we used heterogeneity examination to test for regional differences between rural and urban areas. Our results show that, compared to high-risk takers, low-risk takers are less likely to choose online or hybrid businesses; and having social insurance reduces the effect of risk preference on adopting e-business. This finding indicates social insurance may provide financial security to business owners with low-risk preferences and makes them more likely to adopt online business, whilst it may distort adoption incentives for high- and medium-risk groups. Results of the heterogeneity examination suggest a discrepancy in the risk preference effect on the adoption of e-business between the rural and urban areas: the impact of risk preference is found to be significantly higher on businesses in the rural area than those in the urban area.Item Empowering middle-aged women? A discourse analysis of gendered ageing in the Chinese television reality show sisters who make waves(Taylor and Francis Group, 2024-01-23) Zhang X; Riley SSisters Who Make Waves is a popular Chinese reality show that affirmatively centres “middle-aged” women. Given its popularity and positive framing, the show has significant potential to shape Chinese discourses of gendered aging. To examine this potential, we performed a discourse analysis on Season 2 of Sisters Who Make Waves, identifying its discursive constructions of gendered aging; the subject positions within these discourses; and the rhetorical strategies interpellating the viewer to identify with these subject positions. Three discourses were evident: (1) “age is a problem for women” (an account articulated only to be refuted), (2) “age is a problem only if you let it;” and (3) “hyper resilience” (an expectation of psychological resilience in the face of severe challenges). Reading this analysis through the lens of a postfeminist sensibility, we show how the affirmative potential of Sisters Who Make Waves is undercut with the show’s entanglement of empowerment with regulation and synergies between postfeminist feeling rules and Chinese state ideology of Positive Energy 正能量.Item China's Changing Alcohol Market and Need for an Enhanced Policy Response: A Narrative Review(MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2022-05-11) Liu S; Huang F; Zhu X; Zhou S; Si X; Zhao Y; Liu Y; Zhang X; Casswell S; Tchounwou PBThis study describes trends in alcohol consumption in the context of an expanding commercial context, current policy responses, and flaws in relation to international best practice for alcohol control in China. We surveyed the literature and other documents in Chinese or English up to December 2020 on policy responses to alcohol consumption and harm, industry structure, and marketing practices in China. Databases searched included PubMed, China National Knowledge Internet, Wanfang Data, Web of Science, and Baidu Scholar. We also scanned the official websites of government organizations and gathered information using snowballing. We analyzed existing alcohol policy against evidence-based, cost-effective policies for reducing alcohol harm. Our findings show that although some restrictive policies have been enacted with potential impacts on alcohol harm, they are not comprehensive, and some are poorly executed. The long history of alcohol use remains an important element in alcohol consumption by the Chinese population. However, alcohol marketing and promotion, ease of access, and affordability have become increasingly prominent. The gaps identified in alcohol policy suggest improved strategies and measures to reduce the harmful use of alcohol are urgently needed in China.Item Hedgehogs as Amplifying Hosts of Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome Virus, China.(2022-12) Zhao C; Zhang X; Si X; Ye L; Lawrence K; Lu Y; Du C; Xu H; Yang Q; Xia Q; Yu G; Xu W; Yuan F; Hao J; Jiang J-F; Zheng ASevere fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) is a tickborne bandavirus mainly transmitted by Haemaphysalis longicornis ticks in East Asia, mostly in rural areas. As of April 2022, the amplifying host involved in the natural transmission of SFTSV remained unidentified. Our epidemiologic field survey conducted in endemic areas in China showed that hedgehogs were widely distributed, had heavy tick infestations, and had high SFTSV seroprevalence and RNA prevalence. After experimental infection of Erinaceus amurensis and Atelerix albiventris hedgehogs with SFTSV, we detected robust but transitory viremias that lasted for 9-11 days. We completed the SFTSV transmission cycle between hedgehogs and nymph and adult H. longicornis ticks under laboratory conditions with 100% efficiency. Furthermore, naive H. longicornis ticks could be infected by SFTSV-positive ticks co-feeding on naive hedgehogs; we confirmed transstadial transmission of SFTSV. Our study suggests that the hedgehogs are a notable wildlife amplifying host of SFTSV in China.