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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating effect of information sharing (IS) on the link between supply chain integration (SCI) practices (internal, customer and supplier) and internal process performance (IPP) by using selected agribusiness firms from an emerging economy, Ghana.Design/methodology/approachTo determine the effect of IS on the nexus between SCI practices and IPP, a research framework was developed and tested using data amassed from 156 agribusiness firms for the study. The data set was assessed and hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling.FindingsThe outcomes revealed that both INI and CI positively and significantly influenced IS. However, the results disclosed that SI has no significant positive effect on IS among the Ghanaian agribusiness firms. The findings of the study further discovered that IS fully mediates the relationship between INI, CI and IPP, whereas SI has a direct interaction with IPP.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the existing supply chain management research by empirically authenticating IS as the mediator between SCI practices and IPP. From the viewpoint of a developing economy, this paper identifies the significant connection that exists between SCI practices, IS and IPP. The outcomes recommend that IS is a core driving facilitator to reinforce the correlation between SCI practices and IPP.

Background: Globally, there have been a dramatic upward surge in the total number of agribusiness firms serving as a chain in strengthening of their activities. Interestingly, the impact of supply chain integration (SCI) on agribusiness firms is deficient in a developing country like Ghana.Aim: The study looks into the nexus between supply chain management practices (SCMP) and agribusiness firms' performance. The study further examines the mediating role of SCI on the relationship between SCMP and agribusiness firms' performance in Ghana.Methods: A research framework was proposed and subjected to tentative assessment using data amassed from selected agribusiness firms from the Northern Region of Ghana. Statistical Package for Social Sciences 22.0 version and LISREL 8.0 were used to test hypotheses on the nexus between supply chain management practices and agribusiness firms' performance, as well as the role of SCI.Results: The findings revealed that SCMP relates positively to both financial and internal process performance. Also, it was discovered that SCI completely or partially mediates the effects of SCMP on the two variables of the firms performance, and this difference could be attributed to the different cultural settings.Conclusion: In support of management theories, this study justifies that using SCI as an organisational core strategic tool will help boost agribusiness performances to remain and sustain competitive edge over rivals. Therefore, agribusiness managers, policymakers, governments and other interested bodies are encouraged to broaden the scope of advocacy in streamlining SCI culture to ensure effectiveness and speedy attainments of organisational objectives.

PurposeThis paper aims to identify distinct consumption patterns among Asian consumers and examine how these relate to cultural antecedents and key human values.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a large, representative sample of almost 7,000 Asian consumers in 10 culturally varying markets, using latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify the consumption profiles.FindingsThe findings empirically demonstrate that the two profiles are "inner-directed nationalistic frugals" (IDNF) and "outer-directed self-eekers" (ODSS). IDNF consumers spend more time and money on education and prefer ethnocentric consumption. ODSS consumers emphasize individuality, self-expression, seeking novelty and impressing others. Consumers with more collective values in Schwartz's typology tend to demonstrate the IDNF pattern; those with more individualistic values demonstrate the ODSS pattern. The distribution of IDNF and ODSS profiles is influenced by demographics, religion and geographical region: IDNF is greater than ODSS in Southeast Asia; ODSS is greater than IDNF in East Asia; IDNF is roughly equal to ODSS in Northeast Asia. IDNF tends to be found among older and more religious consumers, while ODSS is the opposite. Importantly, in the more religious Southeast Asian countries, even younger consumers are more IDNF than ODSS.Research limitations/implicationsThis research uses an exploratory and discovery-oriented approach; future research can use more confirmatory approaches to systematically examine the relationship between cultural dimensions (e.g. individualism-collectivism) and consumption patterns.Practical implicationsFor their brands to grow in Asian markets, marketing practitioners are advised to use multiple brands to segment Asian consumers based on their values, demographics, geographical location and what religious/faith traditions they follow.Originality/valueThis is the first paper to identify consumption profiles in Asian markets using LPA without prior conceptual biases and relate them to cultural values and demographic variables.

Disposable electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) became popular among youth after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) implemented an enforcement policy to restrict the sale of cartridge-based flavored e-cigarettes starting from February 2020 in the United States (US). We aimed to examine the flavors and topics related to disposable e-cigarettes on Twitter. The Twitter dataset, which includes 1489 tweets, was collected by the Tweepy streamapplication programming interface (API) using a keyword query from March to September 2020. The disposable e-cigarette flavors were curated from both online stores and collected tweets. Topics related to disposable e-cigarettes on Twitter were manually coded. Distributions of topics were compared between tweets from the US and tweets from non-US countries. The temporal analysis results showed a slight increase in the number of discussions over the study period. Strawberry, mango, watermelon, and mint were the most popular flavors of disposable e-cigarettes mentioned on Twitter. Almost all the tweets (97.11%) were commercial tweets, which were dominated by topics related to the product and flavor promotions. The US tweets focused more on product and flavor promotions and less on price promotions compared to non-US tweets. Our results suggest that companies exploited the limitations of legislation to promote flavors on Twitter, which could undermine public health and young people's finances if they get hooked on addictive products.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread globally since December 2019. Twitter is a popular social media platform with active discussions about the COVID-19 pandemic. The public reactions on Twitter about the COVID-19 pandemic in different countries have not been studied. This study aims to compare the public reactions towards the COVID-19 pandemic between the United Kingdom and the United States from March 6, 2020 to April 2, 2020. Data: The numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United Kingdom and the United States were obtained from the 1Point3Acres website. Twitter data were collected using COVID-19 related keywords from March 6, 2020 to April 2, 2020. Methods: Temporal analyses were performed on COVID-19 related Twitter posts (tweets) during the study period to show daily trends and hourly trends. The sentiment scores of the tweets on COVID-19 were analyzed and associated with the policy announcements and the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases. Topic modeling was conducted to identify related topics discussed with COVID-19 in the United Kingdom and the United States. Results: The number of daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United Kingdom was significantly lower than that in the United States during our study period. There were 3,556,442 COVID-19 tweets in the United Kingdom and 16,280,065 tweets in the United States during the study period. The number of COVID-19 tweets per 10,000 Twitter users in the United Kingdom was lower than that in the United States. The sentiment scores of COVID-19 tweets in the United Kingdom were less negative than those in the United States. The topics discussed in COVID-19 tweets in the United Kingdom were mostly about the gratitude to government and health workers, while the topics in the United States were mostly about the global COVID-19 pandemic situation. Conclusion: Our study showed correlations between the public reactions towards the COVID-19 pandemic on Twitter and the confirmed COVID-19 cases as well as the policies related to the ...