Purpose: Circular economy (CE) has evolved as a result of the growing environmental awareness, environmental legislation and the need for social responsibility. However, awareness levels of CE are not as high as expected and practices are further behind than they should be, with a significant lack of research around the subject in the literature. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the current state of awareness levels and the practices around CE in manufacturing firms. Moreover, the study aims to empirically validate one of the earlier proposed CE models.Design/methodology/approach: The study adopts a quantitative survey questionnaire based approach. More than 500 people from various manufacturing organisations were contacted directly over a 40-day long sampling process through the FAME database, personal contacts and LinkedIn. The survey resulted in 103 completed responses. Given the exploratory nature of the study, the data were mainly analysed using descriptive statistics. To validate the CE model, a correlation analysis was also conducted.Findings: The research findings show that with the growing emphasis on CE across the globe by governing bodies, firms are becoming more aware of CE practices. The analysis also shows some useful insights on the state of each of the pillars (economic benefits, environmental impact and resource scarcity) of CE. The findings also indicate that the environmental impact pillar of CE is at a more developed state than the other two pillars which are, mostly, in a research state.Research limitations/implications: The study provides manufacturing firms with a thorough understanding of the state of CE practices and importance of its successful implementation. The findings of the study advocates consideration of all three pillars of CE by managers as a guide to plan for an efficient strategy around CE implementation. Moreover, our study adds to existing efforts by the academic community to raise the awareness towards CE practice among all relevant stakeholders. The findings of this study are based on the responses from a limited 103 survey responses from manufacturing firms.Originality/value: This study adds to the very limited empirical literature on CE awareness and practices in manufacturing firms. This is also one of the first studies attempting to empirically validate an existing CE model.

The purpose of this study is to employ the existing theory on crisis management and corporate branding in a service context to explore how tourism businesses in Thailand can recover from the crisis caused by the impact of COVID-19. To manage the impact of COVID-19, the concepts of crisis management from different scholars are integrated, and crisis management is divided into three phases: the Pre-Crisis, Crisis, and Post-Crisis phases. This exploratory research employs stakeholder interviews to discover the impacts of COVID-19 on tourism businesses and attempts to develop guidelines for recovering tourism businesses within the service context. Our findings indicate that a strong brand and its proper management can help firms to survive during the crisis period. Moreover, our findings highlight the importance of communication for engaging with all staff during the recovery period. This paper sheds light on how a brand is employed as a proactive strategy to mitigate the impacts of the crisis. Most brands have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and only strong brands are able to survive. Our study also adds to the limited empirical evidence on tourism business recovery during COVID-19 in the context of a developing country. From practitioners’ perspectives, trust, solid relationships, and honest communication with their business partners play an important role in survival after the crisis. Additionally, in this paper, corporate branding is conceived as a strategic tool that affects how staff and stakeholders can collaborate and unite in response to the crisis.

Creating job satisfaction for employees can help organizations maintain their employees and save more on costs from searching for new ones. Therefore, a primary goal of this research was to investigate how work–family conflict, workload, and job stress influenced university lecturers’ work satisfaction. To accomplish the current aim, researchers invited 450 respondents who were holding positions as lecturers at any university in Thailand. Next, a structural equation model was employed to analyze 387 valid data points. In gender statistics, 45.2% were male respondents while 54.8% were female respondents. Moreover, gender obtained mean scores (1.54) with standard deviation scores (0.49). Based on age statistics, most of the respondents who joined this research were between 20 and 30 years old (41.3%) followed by 31–41 years (24.5%), 41–50 years (19.9%), and above 50 years (14.2%). Meanwhile, mean scores were 2.07 with standard deviation 1.09. According to results of this research, increasing work–family conflict and workload caused lecturers to receive more stress from their work. Moreover, the lecturers found themselves happy once certain degrees of stress and work–family conflict, except workload, diminished. Meanwhile, stress among university lecturers significantly mediated their workloads and work satisfaction. This result highlights a side effect of a certain amount of workload influencing lecturers’ stress levels, which in turn increased the significant role of job stress in further influencing lecturers’ work satisfaction.

Despite negative consequences from the COVID-19 pandemic, there are certain positive effects from this crisis including the restoration of natural resources. Using the institutional theory framework, this paper aims to explore how sustainable tourism management can be applied to manage recovered natural resources after the COVID-19 crisis. Qualitative research in the form of in-depth interviews, focus group interviews, and observations was conducted to demonstrate how Krabi tourism stakeholders could collaborate among themselves in order to sustain recovered natural resources after the COVID-19 pandemic. Informants of the study are Krabi tourism stakeholders; i.e., tourism business owners and managers, members of tourism associations, government officers, CBT members, that are recruited by purposive sampling method. This research has shed light on how tourism stakeholders can co-create tourism policies to respond to sustainability issues using the institutional process. In order to develop a successful sustainable tourism management plan, we propose that the plan should consist of three aspects—environmental, social, and economic. The findings from this research offer benefits to tourism stakeholders around the world for reshaping sustainable tourism management in order to take care of magnificent tourism resources after the COVID-19 outbreak.

This study explores the integration of sustainability and cultural sensitivity in clustering Muslim tourist lifestyles in the Andaman coastal region. The Muslim tourist demographic, representing a significant portion of the global population, prioritizes halal standards and Islamic attributes in their travel experiences. This research investigates the lifestyle patterns of Muslim tourists and their alignment with sustainable tourism principles, particularly in Thailand’s Andaman coastal area, known for its marine and beach tourism. A multi-method approach was employed, utilizing the AIO (Activities, Interests, and Opinions) framework for quantitative data collection through the surveys of 836 Muslim tourists, and qualitative insights from in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with local stakeholders. The study identified key lifestyle clusters: Mainstream Travelers, Experience Seekers, and Chillouts, each with specific preferences for halal services, prayer facilities, and eco-friendly accommodations. The findings underscore the importance of a tailored approach in promoting sustainable tourism that respects cultural values. Recommendations include enhancing halal-certified services, improving infrastructure for religious practices, and promoting eco-friendly tourism options. By aligning sustainability with cultural sensitivity, the Andaman coastal region can attract more Muslim tourists while preserving its environmental and cultural heritage. This research contributes to the broader discourse on sustainable tourism by emphasizing cultural sensitivity and provides practical guidelines for tourism stakeholders in the Andaman region to develop inclusive and sustainable tourism strategies.

Perceived e-learning usefulness as a marketing element has significantly affected student satisfaction, which results in a high propensity to continue using the current e-learning services with their universities. Therefore, this study aims to examine the effects of perceived risk, confirmation, and student motivation on perceived e-learning usefulness. This paper employed a convenience sampling technique to collect opinions from 689 university students at different universities (e.g., Thaksin University, Hatyai University, Prince of Songkla University, and Rajabhat University) around Thailand. Those students were actively using e-learning to access their education. After checking data validity, only 527 valid responses were analyzed through the path analysis method. According to empirical findings, confirmation significantly influenced student motivation, while perceived risk did not significantly impact student motivation. Finally, perceived e-learning usefulness was significantly influenced by confirmation, student motivation, and perceived risk. Furthermore, although these factors significantly influenced perceived e-learning usefulness, attitudes toward perceived e-learning usefulness relied mainly on the degree of confirmation, as this factor highlighted the most substantial effect on perceived e-learning usefulness. Moreover, perceived e-learning usefulness as a marketing element is a promising topic in the e-learning service sector, which requires future studies to examine to which extent the current study findings could apply to other groups of students or practitioners.