The emergence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has considerably changed global food production, processing, and consumption at different levels. Sojourners are among those who have experienced a higher level of food insecurity during the crisis of the COVID-19 outbreak. The current research aimed to investigate the immediate consumption behavioral intentions of the Pakistani international students in the People's Republic of China (PRC) during the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. This study applied the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and background factors of food safety and health consciousness that influence the consumption behavioral intention of Pakistani students toward unfamiliar local food in China. A relational model was analyzed where food safety and health consciousness were hypothesized to serve as background variables associated with TPB components. Moreover, the indirect effects of food safety and health consciousness on behavioral intentions were assessed. The data were collected through convenience samples from 462 Pakistani international students and were analyzed through partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results confirmed that food safety and health consciousness were positively associated with attitude (ATT), subjective norm (SN), and perceived behavioral control (PBC). However, food safety and health consciousness were indirectly associated with the behavioral intention only through ATT and SN. The results highlighted the role of food safety and health consciousness as important antecedents of classical TPB components that affect intentions and behaviors to avoid unfamiliar local food in a migrated context. The present study provides enlightenment to those who aim to investigate the consumption behavioral intentions of sojourners in the wake of the pandemic situation based on food safety and health consciousness. The findings of the current study are also applicable to general consumption patterns in the food sector.

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The outgrowth of e-commerce has advanced the development of countries' economies. Today, online marketplaces are targeting not only their local customers but are also spreading their interests overseas, expanding cross-border e-commerce. The current study aims to analyze the interaction of customer's personal traits, such as national culture, disposition to trust, and perceived trustworthiness, and their effect on the purchase intention within different e-commerce contexts. The contexts are chosen based on the country-of-origin parameter and serve as the moderator in the research model. Both direct and indirect effects of cultural dimensions on trustworthiness and purchase intention are analyzed within the research framework. The data for the analysis are randomly collected among the Russian population and assessed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The analysis results prove the marketplace context moderates the interaction of customers' personal traits among each other and their effect on the purchase intention. The study shows that dimensions of national culture have a more substantial effect on perceived trustworthiness and purchase intention in the Chinese marketplace context. The current study contributes to the analysis of customer behavior patterns within context, expanding context-related research direction. It increases the specificity of the culture and trustworthiness research and deepens the understanding of country-of-origin moderating effect in e-commerce. Moreover, addressing a high-level uncertainty avoidance culture within the research framework, the study diversifies the existing set of analyzed cultures in the e-commerce environment. The current study is applicable both in domestic and in cross-border e-commerce practice, broadening the understanding of consumer behavior patterns. The research model is relevant for the analysis of trust-effected behavioral outcomes.

This research investigates the impact of transformational leadership (TL) style on project success (PS) in the indirect effect of serial mediation of team-building and teamwork quality (TWQ). A quantitative research approach was used for this study. Data were gathered from 374 professional information system development (ISD) project managers in Pakistan. The hypotheses were tested using regression analysis with bootstrapping. Both team-building and teamwork independently and serially mediate the relationship between the TL and PS of the project managers, respectively. The TL style of the project manager intensifies PS with team-building practices (TBP) and TWQ. The TL boosts TWQ in terms of communication, coordination, and cohesion to achieve a successful project. The findings suggest that TL is associated with PS through serial mediation of team-building and teamwork. No research to date has used this nascent methodology to explore the association between TL and PS.

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