As omnichannel shopping behavior becomes increasingly popular among consumers, how to leverage the respective advantages and synergies of online and offline channels to retain customers for a long time is an urgent issue for retailers to solve. The purpose of this study is to explore the key advantages of online and offline channels influencing the omnichannel shopping experience in the decision-making process, and investigate their impact on consumer perceived value and brand relationship performance, as well as the interaction effect of online channel advantages and offline channel advantages. This study identifies the key advantages of online channels (search convenience, customer-generated information richness, and social connection) and offline channels (direct product experience, sales-staff assistance, and servicescape aesthetics) through a qualitative study and relevant literature review. Then, the proposed research framework was tested using the structural model equation in AMOS and hierarchical regression techniques in SPSS utilizing data from 347 shoppers. The results show that all variables except customer-generated information richness have positive impact on consumer perceived value. Other than search convenience and customer-generated information richness, consumer perceived value mediates the effect of other variables on brand relationship performance. Additionally, the interaction effect of online and offline channel advantages positively impacts consumer perceived value.

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The outbreak of COVID-19 has caused a major impact on productivity and life functioning, and also led to adverse emotional reactions. In the face of this public health event, increased anxiety is one of the most common emotional reactions. Previous studies have shown that anxiety sensitivity, rumination and anxiety are closely related. Various dimensions of anxiety sensitivity have different effects on anxiety. Also, rumination can be divided into brooding and reflection. To explore the relationships among anxiety sensitivity’s cognitive concerns, anxiety and different types of rumination, we conducted an online survey during the outbreak of coronavirus (February 17–25, 2020), using the Anxiety Sensitivity Scale-3 (ASI-3), Ruminative Responses Scale (RSS), and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21). The results showed significant positive correlations among anxiety sensitivity’s cognitive concerns, anxiety, brooding and reflection. Furthermore, brooding and reflection had a chain mediation effect between cognitive concerns and anxiety, and the mediation effect of reflection was even stronger. Results suggest that anxiety sensitivity’s cognitive concerns may not only affect anxiety directly, but also affect anxiety through rumination, especially reflection.

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Background Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) have become increasingly popular. China has accelerated its legislation on e-cigarettes in recent years by issuing two policies to regulate their use: the first on August 26, 2018, and the second on November 1, 2019. Social media provide an efficient platform to access information on the public opinion of e-cigarettes. Objective To gain insight into how policies have influenced the reaction of the Chinese public to e-cigarettes, this study aims to understand what the Chinese public say about e-cigarettes and how the focus of discussion might have changed in the context of policy implementation. Methods This study uses a combination of text mining and correspondence analysis to content analyze 1160 e-cigarette–related questions and their corresponding answers from Zhihu, China’s largest question-and-answer platform and one of the country’s most trustworthy social media sources. From January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2019, Python was used to text mine the most frequently used words and phrases in public e-cigarette discussions on Zhihu. The correspondence analysis was used to examine the similarities and differences between high-frequency words and phrases across 3 periods (ie, January 1, 2017, to August 27, 2018; August 28, 2018, to October 31, 2019; and November 1, 2019, to January 1, 2020). Results The results of the study showed that the consistent themes across time were comparisons with traditional cigarettes, health concerns, and how to choose e-cigarette products. The issuance of government policies on e-cigarettes led to a change in the focus of public discussion. The discussion of e-cigarettes in period 1 mainly focused on the use and experience of e-cigarettes. In period 2, the public’s attention was not only on the substances related to e-cigarettes but also on the smoking cessation functions of e-cigarettes. In period 3, the public shifted their attention to the e-cigarette industry and government policy on the banning of e-cigarette sales to minors. Conclusions Social media are an informative source, which can help policy makers and public health professionals understand the public’s concerns over and understanding of e-cigarettes. When there was little regulation, public discussion was greatly influenced by industry claims about e-cigarettes; however, once e-cigarette policies were issued, these policies, to a large extent, set the agenda for public discussion. In addition, media reporting of these policies might have greatly influenced the way e-cigarette policies were discussed. Therefore, monitoring e-cigarette discussions on social media and responding to them in a timely manner will both help improve the public’s e-cigarette literacy and facilitate the implementation of e-cigarette–related policies.