Customer's decision and affective assessment of online product recommendation: A recommendation-product congruity proposition.

Online product recommendation (OPR) systems have gained prominence in the context of e-commerce over the past years. Despite the increased research on OPR use, less attention has been paid to examining how decision and affective assessment of the OPR are contingent upon the product type. This study proposes and examines a recommendation-product congruity proposition based on cognitive fit and schema congruity theories. The proposition states that when the content (i.e., a stimulus-based schema) of the OPR [either system-generated recommendation (SGR) or a consumer-generated recommendation (CGR)] matches the brain-stored schema initiated by a particular product (either a search product or an experienced product), then a consumer would use a schema-based information assessment strategy and experience favorable decision and affective assessment of the OPR. This then affects consumers' intentions to purchase and reuse OPR. The proposition is tested via a 2 × 2 between-respondents factorial design of a cross-sectional survey with 482 Amazon customers. The results support the following two matching conditions of the proposition: (1) SGR describing a search product and (2) CGR explaining an experienced product, which might lead customers to perceive lower decision effort, greater decision quality, and higher enjoyment with the OPR that subsequently have a significant impact on their intentions to purchase and reuse OPR. This study expands our understanding of how recommendation-product congruence influences the consumer's decision and affective assessment behavior and provides practical implications for the identification and presentation of the recommendation type and product type for a better customer decision.

Foreign direct investment inflow, economic growth, energy consumption, globalization, and carbon dioxide emission around the world.

This study for the first time examined the link of foreign direct investment inflow, globalization, energy consumption, economic growth, export of fuel resources, and export of ore and metal resources with carbon dioxide emission in 170 countries around the world by using panel data from 1990 to 2018. The examined results of GMM and fixed effect model show that greenhouse gas emissions reduce due to exports of natural resources, export of fuel resources and export of ore and metal resources, urbanization, economic globalization, and political globalization, but the use of energy, social globalization, foreign direct investment, and economic growth have boosted the carbon dioxide emissions. This study suggests that policy makers should focus to implement environment-friendly equipment to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Impact of foreign direct investment, natural resources, renewable energy consumption, and economic growth on environmental degradation: evidence from BRICS, developing, developed and global countries.

This research examined the impact of foreign direct investment, natural resources, renewable energy consumption, and economic growth on environmental degradation in BRICS, developing, developed, and global countries for the time period from 1991 to 2018 by using dynamic fixed effect model, GMM, and system GMM estimators. The examined results indicate that FDI causes environmental degradation in BRICS and developing countries while in developed countries, FDI helps environmental degradation reduction. The empirical results indicate that fuel resources and renewable energy consumption help to reduce the environment degradation in BRICS, developing, developed, and global countries while ore and metal resources cause environment degradation improvement in developed countries. Total natural resources (coal, oil, natural gas, and mineral rents) and economic growth are the main factors that boost the environmental degradation in BRICS, developing, developed, and global countries. Based on the examined results, policies are suggested for BRICS, developing, developed, and global countries. It is suggested that policy makers in these countries not only reply to protect environmental degradation but also support the growth of fuel resources, ore, and metal resource and total natural resources.

Impact of financial development and energy consumption on environmental degradation in 184 countries using a dynamic panel model.

This study aimed to examine the impact of financial development and energy consumption on CO2 emissions by employing balanced panel data from the period 1990-2017 for 184 countries worldwide. This study applied seemingly unrelated regression (SUR), two-step difference, and the system GMM model for data analysis. The examined results of SUR, two-step difference, and system GMM show that energy consumption positively impacts the CO2 emissions worldwide; on the other hand, the examined results of two-step difference and the system GMM model indicate that financial development helps to reduce the CO2 emissions and the results of SUR indicate that financial development positively impacts the CO2 emissions. The examined results regarding economic growth indicate a positive effect on the CO2 emission and the square of economic growth verifies the validly of the environmental Kuznets curve in 184 countries. This study has significant implications for policy makers with regard to environment improvement, clean energy conservation, and an efficient financial system. Further directions are suggested based on the examined results.

Environmental risk factors for inflammatory bowel diseases: Evidence based literature review.

AIM: Advances in genetics and immunology have contributed to the current understanding of the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). METHODS: The current opinion on the pathogenesis of IBD suggests that genetically susceptible individuals develop intolerance to dysregulated gut microflora (dysbiosis) and chronic inflammation develops as a result of environmental insults. Environmental exposures are innumerable with varying effects during the life course of individuals with IBD. Studying the relationship between environmental factors and IBD may provide the missing link to increasing our understanding of the etiology and increased incidence of IBD in recent years with implications for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Environmental factors are heterogeneous and genetic predisposition, immune dysregulation, or dysbiosis do not lead to the development of IBD in isolation. RESULTS: Current challenges in the study of environmental factors and IBD are how to effectively translate promising results from experimental studies to humans in order to develop models that incorporate the complex interactions between the environment, genetics, immunology, and gut microbiota, and limited high quality interventional studies assessing the effect of modifying environmental factors on the natural history and patient outcomes in IBD. CONCLUSION: This article critically reviews the current evidence on environmental risk factors for IBD and proposes directions for future research.