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PurposeThis study applied the herd mentality theory to explore local and global social media users' responses to panic buying across the USA, UK and Australia during the COVID-19 crisis to understand the implications on operations and supply chains.Design/methodology/approachA total of 208,806 social media user-generated content (UGC) pieces were collected from Twitter in three countries – the USA, UK and Australia. The analysis of this big qualitative data was performed using machine learning–based software – Leximancer.FindingsPositive and negative sentiment towards panic buying during the COVID-19 crisis was observed in the UGC. No significant differences in social media UGC sentiment between the three countries were found; however, differences did exist in key themes. This suggests that the focus, not the sentiment, of consumers' responses to panic buying differed across countries. Social media users follow their location-based and topic-consonant social "herd", rather than the global "herd".Research limitations/implicationsThis study was the first to show that social media users' herd mentality differs in a crisis. The herd mentality of social networks is dependent on factors such as the geographic location of the social network (herd), which can differ from the global herd's reaction, specifically in terms of topics evident in UGC.Practical implicationsOperations and supply chain managers need to include social media UGC analysis in their strategies in crisis management responses. The topics, not the sentiment, of consumers' responses to panic buying require managerial actions.Originality/valueThis is the first study to show that herd mentality during a crisis, such as COVID-19, is not unidimensional and varies according to the location of the social media network with profound implications for operations and supply chain managers.

PurposeFinancial bankruptcy is inevitable in the tourism and hospitality ecosystem. Despite the pertinence of tourism and hospitality businesses going into bankruptcy, limited studies have investigated the early warning signs and likelihood of a financial bankruptcy occurring in tourism and hospitality firms. This study examined the predictive value of financial ratios as potential indicators in predicting bankruptcy among tourism and hospitality firms.Design/methodology/approachAltman's z-score bankruptcy prediction model was applied through five key financial ratios to predict bankruptcy of the Thomas Cook Travel Group over a ten year period (2008–2018).FindingsThe key findings of this study strongly suggest that besides the size and location of the firm, financial ratios are reliable predictors and play a pivotal role in predicting the bankruptcy of a tourism and hospitality business.Practical implicationsThe paper provides key stakeholders to adopt checks and balances to identify financial distressed tourism firms through financial ratios.Originality/valueThis is the first academic paper to inspect the financial history of Thomas Cook Travel Group in a financial ratio context, particularly following the bankruptcy of the firm in 2019.

In spurring high level of economic development, tax as one of the fiscal policy instruments is vital in generating more revenues for the government. However, higher tax revenues mean the people and companies have to pay more out of their income thus create austerity in productivity. The present study examines the correlation between tax and newly invented products or services among firms in Malaysia. The study employs binomial logit model by using the World Bank data of 919 firms in 2015. The result shows that the correlation estimate between tax and innovation is weak, but the controlling variables such as residency, firm size and region strengthened the coefficients between the variables. There is a high concentration of residence firms not to invent new product or service when they perceived the tax as obstacle to their current operations. This study also finds a significant role of firm size on this phenomenon whereby small firms are hardly involve in innovation activities as compared to medium firms. The study thereby offers a new insight for policy formulation to consider the innovation activities in future planning.

The roles of firms in driving the economic growth cannot be neglected particularly via their contribution from taxation. However, their performance may be compromised if tax administration is complicated. Instead of boosting the economy, the impacts might turn out to be negative, which create multiplier reaction on the whole economic performance. This issue is relevant to be assessed since it helps the government to formulate better tax administration and public policies to ensure growth and sustainability in the private sector. Hence, this paper is meant to analyze how tax administration in Malaysia affects firm performance. By using responses from 938 firms generated from The World Bank's Enterprise Surveys, descriptive statistics, Spearman correlation and cross-tabulation analyses were conducted. It was found that tax administration does not adversely affect firm performance in Malaysia. Instead, firm performance could be impeded due to other major obstacles such as competitors, business licensing and permits as well as high tax rates. The data used in this paper encompassed to three different sizes of firms namely small, medium and large companies. It does not include micro-enterprises or any non-government organizations. For future research, the inclusion of these two types of firms might be needed. Besides, since tax rate is declared as among the main obstacles in conducting business in Malaysia, its role in affecting firms' performance can also be analyzed.