Teleconsultation management in healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic: The impact of Perceived Justice on satisfaction and Word-Of-Mouth

Following the restrictions on movement imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the greater demands placed on physicians and many healthcare infrastructures, a large number of health teleconsultation platforms have emerged around the world. The aim of this paper is to obtain a better understanding of the acceptance of teleconsultation platforms by patients. To this end, a survey of 1273 patients was carried out using a teleconsultation platform during the pandemic period in France (from 9 July to 29 October 2020). The questionnaire mobilized existing scales to measure Satisfaction, Perceived Justice and, finally, the intention to disseminate by Word-Of-Mouth (WOM). Data were analysed using a Partial Least Squares approach. The study confirms the impact of Distributive, Informational and Procedural Justice on Satisfaction and the impact of Distributive and Informational Justice on WOM. The findings emphasize the influence of Satisfaction on WOM. The results detect a mediating effect of Satisfaction on WOM and moderating effects of gender, age and long-standing use. This research contributes to both theoretical and practical COVID-19 research and may be used by healthcare professionals to develop teleconsultation services, one of the means of supporting interaction and satisfying patients’ treatment requirements during the pandemic.

The use of blockchain in the luxury industry: supply chains and the traceability of goods

Purpose

Most businesses strive to control the efficiency of their supply chains; however, luxury firms face additional challenges from counterfeit, gray market and copycat products. Blockchain technology can address these issues and enhance firms' supply chain management, guaranteeing the traceability and origin of luxury products. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the utility and contexts influencing the implementation of blockchain technology to optimize supply chain management and prevent fraud in the luxury industry.

Design/methodology/approach

The research uses a qualitative approach based on the grounded theory method. Data are collected by semi-structured interviews with 12 stakeholders working on blockchain applications in the luxury business sector.

Findings

Highlighting the problems faced by luxury brands' supply chains, this study presents blockchain technology as a solution for disintermediation, traceability and transparency in the luxury goods sector. The constraints faced by luxury brands incorporating this technology into their ecosystem include the knowledge gap, the multiplicity of third parties involved in the production process and bias toward short-term returns on investment.

Originality/value

Blockchains promote greater transparency and efficiency within supply chains, which builds consumer trust and improves brand revenue. Considering luxury brands' reluctance to adopt blockchains, this study suggests that luxury firms adopt a staggered implementation of private blockchain networks starting with a small number of third-party suppliers.

Patients' perceptions of teleconsultation during COVID-19: A cross-national study

In recent months, humanity has had to deal with a worldwide pandemic called COVID-19, which has caused the death of hundreds of thousands of people and paralyzed the global economy. Struggling to cure infected patients while continuing to care for patients with other pathologies, health authorities have faced the lack of medical staff and infrastructure. This study aimed to investigate the acceptance of teleconsultation solutions by patients, which help to avoid the spread of the disease during this pandemic period. The model was built using some constructs of the technology acceptance model UTAUT2, Personal traits, Availability, and Perceived Risks. A new scale on Contamination Avoidance was developed by the authors. The questionnaire was disseminated in several countries in Europe and Asia and a total sample of 386 respondents was collected. The results emphasize the huge impact of Performance Expectancy, the negative influence of Perceived Risk, and the positive influence of Contamination Avoidance on the adoption of teleconsultation solutions. The findings highlight the moderating effects of Age, Gender, and Country.

Peace engineering: The contribution of blockchain systems to the e-voting process

In recent decades, several countries have faced political tensions due to citizens' perceptions that their elections are fraudulent; some electors have even chosen not to vote because they believe that the results may be falsified. Thus, electoral fraud is a major issue. E-governance and e-voting are now being used in many countries, some of which are investigating blockchain solutions. The aim of this study is to investigate the potential contributions of blockchain technology to peace on a worldwide level by securing voting systems. Unfortunately, this technology is complex and could potentially generate conflict between actors in elections. Taking an exploratory approach, the authors chose a qualitative method to address this specific topic. Election observers and blockchain experts were interviewed to identify the technology's strengths and weaknesses. Our results emphasize the importance of trust and human factors in the voting process.

Differing Perceptions of the Smartwatch by Users Within Developed Countries

This article aims to identify differences in the impact of Self-connectivity and the variables of the technological acceptance model (TAM) on smartwatch adoption in developed countries. The countries involved in the data collection were the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France. A sample of 1,197 respondents was used. The study identifies distinct adoption behaviours of smartwatch users in these countries and the moderating impacts of age and gender. The study's results confirm that perceived ease-of-use has no impact on attitude-toward-using the smartwatch and its findings emphasize the key role of perceived-connectivity and the moderating effect of culture on the adoption of innovative products.

The future of Telemedicine Cabin? The case of the French students' acceptability

Telemedicine could solve the problem of the lack of infrastructure and insufficient number of qualified healthcare staff in many countries/regions. The aim of this research is to investigate the futures of such solution by having a better understanding of the acceptance of the Telemedicine Cabin by high-educated Millennials. To reach this goal, a survey was built using specific dimensions to measure the perception of Telemedicine Cabin, the Unified-Theory-of-Acceptance-and-Use-of-Technology 2nd version (UTAUT2) and finally the Personal Innovativeness and the Privacy Concern scales. Our sample was composed of 158 students from different Business Schools and data were analysed using a Partial Least Approach. Findings highlight the key role of all Telemedicine Cabin dimensions (Accessibility, Availability and Compatibility) on Performance Expectancy, the importance of three UTAUT2 constructs (Performance Expectancy, Price Value and Habit) and the negative impact of Privacy Concern on the Intention to Use a Telemedicine Cabin. In addition, results demonstrate that Personal Innovativeness does not affect the Intention to Use Telemedicine Cabin.

How Blockchain can impact financial services - The overview, challenges and recommendations from expert interviewees

FinTech (Financial Technology) and Blockchain are prevalent topics among technology leaders in finance today. This article describes the impact and revolution of FinTech and Blockchain in the financial industry and demonstrates the main characteristics of such technology. Then, we present three critical challenges as well as three ethical issues about using Blockchain technology. Next, we discuss the development of Blockchain for the financial sector. In addition, we describe the real motivations for banks to explore Blockchain, and problems they face. In order to have a good understanding of the industry, a qualitative method was adopted, and sixteen experts were interviewed. It was identified that knowledge hiding in Blockchain was common and the rationale behind was analyzed using the TPB (Theory of Planned Behavior) approach. The analysis results suggested that knowledge hiding was due to affective, behavioral and cognitive evaluations. The interviewees also provided several recommendations and success factors to overcome current issues in Blockchain adoption. Therefore, four important propositions have been developed. Finally, this article suggests how financial services should respond to this new technology and how to manage knowledge sharing in a more structured way. This article contributes to the literature related to the current entrepreneurial finance landscape for Blockchain.

Understanding Restaurant Clients' Intention to Use Mobile Applications

Smartphones have changed consumer behavior by providing new mobile technology applications. In order to understand the intention to use mobile applications, this study highlights the factors of usability, loyalty, and trust based on technology acceptance models and relationship marketing by using mobile restaurant guides. This research fills a gap regarding the comparison of mobile application users' behavior in France and Russia. The authors tested the model by a total sample of 244 respondents (123 from Paris and 121 from Moscow) and analysed it with SmartPLS. The comparison of subgroups indicates that Russian users are sensitive toward the variable of trust, while French users are more impacted by mobile application usability. This study can be relevant for practitioners who work internationally, developers of mobile applications, and restaurant managers.