This study examines how the legal and regulatory changes in China affect the relationship between client economic importance and audit quality. At the individual auditor level, we find that the propensity to issue modified audit opinions (MAOs) is negatively correlated with client importance from 1995 to 2000. However, from 2001 to 2004, when the institutional environment became more investor-friendly, the propensity to issue MAOs is positively associated with client importance. These findings are corroborated by an analysis of regulatory sanctions. Although client importance measured at the office level is also negatively related to the propensity for MAOs from 1995 to 2000 without controlling for the auditor-level client importance, this result is sensitive to model specification and sample composition. Our results suggest that (1) institutional improvements prompt auditors to prioritize the costs of compromising quality over the economic benefits gained from important clients; and (2) the impact of client importance on audit decisions appears to be different at the individual auditor and office levels.

As an innovative technology, robot services are now used in the tourism industry to enhance consumer experience. Despite its importance, the impact of robot applications on the purchase intention of consumers has received limited, if any, attention. Considering that purchase intention can largely lead to actual purchase behaviour, this study investigated the impact of robot hotel service on the purchase intention of consumers through an experiment. Findings revealed that the purchase intention of the group who watched a video about robot hotel service was significantly higher than those who watched traditional hotel service video. Implications are further discussed.

The tourism industry is an environmentally sensitive one. The recent outbreak of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) severely hit the global tourism industry. Nonetheless, future tourism development directions affected by the recent COVID-19 and feasible solutions for the recovery of the tourism industry in the existing literature were limited. Hence, this study predicts a future tourism development with detailed directions affected by the COVID-19 outbreak using Mainland China (hereafter known as China) as an example to address the aforementioned gaps. In total, 91 in-depth interviews were conducted among hospitality and tourism practitioners and experts. Overall, hospitality and tourism practitioners and experts hold a positive attitude toward the recovery of the tourism industry, whereas tourism practitioners perceive the long-term impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on the tourism industry. The findings contribute to the detailed predictions of the future tourism development for the hotel industry, travel agency, and tourist attractions.

Purpose: This study aims to review published articles on website evaluation in hospitality and tourism for the period of 2000-2015 to provide a comprehensive updated review, as well as to offer implications for academic researchers and industry practitioners.Design/methodology/approach: Content analysis was adopted by this study to review retrieved articles on website evaluation in hospitality and tourism. Articles were then analyzed from consumers’ perspective, suppliers’ perspective, and both consumers and suppliers’ perspectives using a systematic approach.Findings: Major findings of this study showed that a majority of articles focused on either hospitality or tourism. Moreover, most of the articles generally discussed user interface, marketing effectiveness and website quality. However, these articles did not discuss in detail the implications of website evaluation and ignore the connections between suppliers and consumers to some extent.Research limitations/implications: This study can be used as a reference for academic researchers to extend previous frameworks and for industry practitioners to reconstruct the traditional organizational chart and implementing e-strategic management strategies, including m-marketing.Originality/value: This study updates website evaluation development in hospitality and tourism in the new millennium. The findings of this study provide significant implications for hospitality and tourism researchers and practitioners to encourage supplier-consumer engagement.