Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rapid spread of COVID-19 around the world has become one of the main focuses of concern in almost every country, and governments have taken numerous measures to prevent/mitigate the spread of the disease. As an essential social determinant, COVID-19 has significantly impacted consumers’ food consumption behavior and healthy eating habits/behaviors. The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on food consumption behavior, and the main goal was to assess the possible problems (such as food waste and weight gain) caused by changes in food consumption behavior during the pandemic. Based on the accounting data of Chinese enterprises found in the China Stock Market and Accounting Research (CSMAR) database, this study uses economic theory and the translog function to conduct an average partial effect (APE) analysis of the pandemic, and finds that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased Chinese people’s overall food consumption, and the consumption of food from large food enterprises has increased even more (APE = 0.11 vs. APE = 0.31). This study suggests that food waste and weight gain in the Chinese population may be more severe during the pandemic, and it is necessary to enhance food management and weight management through multiple pathways.

This study examines the association between professional training, higher academic qualifications (educational levels) and operating performance of audit firms in Taiwan. We particularly focus on the curvilinear effects of higher academic qualifications on operating performance. We group the total sample into three categories: national, regional and local audit firms. Based on the theoretical framework in industrial economics, we establish a cross-sectional multiple regression equation to test our hypotheses. Both higher academic qualifications and professional training are positively related to the operating performance of audit firms. Professional training moderates the relation between higher academic qualifications and operating performance. Higher academic qualifications exhibit a curvilinear effect on operating performance with a reverse U-shaped relation for the national audit firms and a U-shaped relation for both regional and local audit firms. Due to data unavailability, some factors affecting the audit quality and operating performance are not included in our analysis, such as auditor teamwork, internal control system, operating policies and auditing procedures of audit firms. The findings that higher academic qualifications are positively associated with the operating performance of audit firms justify the educational policy of establishing institutes or graduate schools in accounting over the past two decades. Furthermore, audit firms skillfully exploit employees with higher academic qualifications to improve their operating performance. We are the first to document the moderating effects of professional training and the curvilinear association between higher academic qualifications and operating performance, contributing knowledge to related literature.

The General Office of the State Council of China promulgated the National Nutrition Program 2017–2030 in 2017 to guide the people to improve their food supply and nutritional intake. This study uses qualitative and quantitative information which are analyzed to estimate the change in people’s food purchases following the implementation of the National Nutrition Program 2017–2030, and puts forward measures that should be taken by the competent authorities and stakeholders. We use the translog revenue function of the food industry, and based on the data of listed companies of Chinese food enterprises from 2015 to 2020, and this study find that the National Nutrition Program 2017–2030 has had a positive impact on people’s food purchases, and the impact is more obvious in people’s food purchases from large food manufacturers. Finally, we also provide regulators with public policy implications, and provide food manufacturers with development suggestions.

This study attempted to explore the competitive advantage strategies of the medical consumables industry (MCI) from the perspectives of human resources, research and development (R&D) and the industry life cycle. As one of the essential branches of modern medical device industry, the MCI has developed rapidly in recent years as global demand for medical consumables has shown continual growth, but it also faces market uncertainty. This study took Taiwan’s small/medium medical consumables enterprises (SMMCEs) as a sample, and used the translog revenue function to study the competitive advantage of the MCI through human resource and R&D investment strategies and the stage characteristics of the industry life cycle curve. The results showed that the various human resources and R&D expenses of the small/medium medical consumables industry (SMMCI) can interact with each other to influence total revenue and that the SMMCI needs more varied types of human resources to enhance its competitive advantage. The total revenue of the SMMCI decreased as education inputs rose, but it increased along with increases in the number of employee and R&D inputs. Observed from the life cycle curve of the SMMCI, total revenue increased rapidly during the startup and growth stages, increased slowly during the maturity stage, and decreased during the decline stage. Finally, we put forward competitive advantage strategies and management suggestions for medical consumables enterprises (MCEs). We are the first to document the life cycle curve and competitive advantage strategies of the MCI, thereby contributing to the related literature.

The COVID-19 pandemic may have had a negative impact on dairy consumption trends. Many dairy products are perishable and have relatively high income elasticity, causing their susceptibility to market fluctuations in general, including those specifically caused by the pandemic. However, the pandemic has also brought some other prospective possibilities. For example, during the pandemic, people paid more attention to nutrition and health issues and increased the number of meals prepared and eaten at home. In consideration of the particular circumstances during the pandemic, the Chinese government issued several policies to promote the population’s dairy consumption, and the Chinese dairy cattle sector actively implemented the policy of “guarantee price, quality, and supply”. These factors may have caused the Chinese population to increase their consumption of dairy products during the pandemic. Before the pandemic, the consumption of dairy products in the Chinese population showed an overall upward trend. The question addressed in this study is how has COVID-19 affected dairy consumption trends during the pandemic? This study uses accounting data from the Chinese dairy cattle sector to empirically analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on dairy consumption trends through economic theories and translog revenue function. Our study found that COVID-19 increased consumers’ consumption of dairy products in China, but those people experiencing poverty may still have experienced inadequate dairy intake. This study has contributed to the body of work in this area in the literature and provides response strategies for the dairy cattle sector and the authorities.