A Review of Cross-Border E-commerce and Directions for Future Research

The emergence of Cross-Border E-commerce (CBeC) has brought substantial changes to both businesses and consumers. Although CBeC businesses have existed for less than a decade, many academic researchers addressed important issues in this context. It is essential to evaluate what has been studied through a structured review of the literature and derive meaningful insights given that research on this topic is new and largely fragmented. Therefore, this study conducts a review of CBeC literature to find the current gaps and fragmentation to provide guidelines for future research. The review shows that research in this domain needs more attention and enforcement to address the current research gaps. Addressing the current gaps helps academia build a rigorous body of knowledge and enables practitioners to solve challenging business problems.

Review of Cross-Border E-Commerce and Directions for Future Research

The emergence of Cross-Border E-commerce (CBeC) has brought substantial changes to both businesses and consumers. Although CBeC businesses have existed for less than a decade, many academic researchers addressed important issues in this context. It is essential to evaluate what has been studied through a structured review of the literature and derive meaningful insights given that research on this topic is new and largely fragmented. Therefore, this study conducts a review of CBeC literature to find the current gaps and fragmentation to provide guidelines for future research. The review shows that research in this domain needs more attention and enforcement to address the current research gaps. Addressing the current gaps helps academia build a rigorous body of knowledge and enables practitioners to solve challenging business problems.

Efficiency and Effectiveness of Web Application Vulnerability Detection Approaches: A Review

Most existing surveys and reviews on web application vulnerability detection (WAVD) approaches focus on comparing and summarizing the approaches’ technical details. Although some studies have analyzed the efficiency and effectiveness of specific methods, there is a lack of a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the efficiency and effectiveness of various WAVD approaches. We conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) of WAVD approaches and analyzed their efficiency and effectiveness. We identified 105 primary studies out of 775 WAVD articles published between January 2008 and June 2019. Our study identified 10 categories of artifacts analyzed by the WAVD approaches and 8 categories of WAVD meta-approaches for analyzing the artifacts. Our study’s results also summarized and compared the effectiveness and efficiency of different WAVD approaches on detecting specific categories of web application vulnerabilities and which web applications and test suites are used to evaluate the WAVD approaches. To our knowledge, this is the first SLR that focuses on summarizing the effectiveness and efficiencies of WAVD approaches. Our study results can help security engineers choose and compare WAVD tools and help researchers identify research gaps.

Critical Issues in Consumer Horticulture: Gaps in Research and Public Gardens’ Involvement in Consumer Horticulture

The retail gardening industry in the United States is expected to reach $50 billion by 2023, and it is a significant driver of the agricultural economy. To meet the corresponding demand for information, consumer horticulture (CH) professionals will need to develop innovative digital outreach, research-based solutions, a concerted recruitment of youth, and enhanced collaborations. To understand the current gaps in CH research and the extent of the involvement of public gardens in CH, surveys were conducted among the two groups, CH/extension researchers and staff of public gardens. The results of the surveys were presented at the virtual conference of the American Society for Horticultural Science on 12 Aug. 2020 during a workshop hosted by the Consumer Horticulture and Master Gardener Professional Interest Group. The workshop included four presentations, and two of those are discussed in this paper: 1) research gaps in CH and 2) bridging the divide between CH and public gardens. Among researchers, even though there was a general understanding of CH, there was a disconnect in participants’ perceptions of the roles of CH in the economy and recreation. The greatest knowledge gap was in basic horticultural practices. Regarding public garden professionals, there needs to be a concerted effort to educate them about CH so they can provide a consistent message to their audiences and the general public.

A Corpus-Based Study on China English in the English Translation of Tao Te Ching

This study aims to examine the features of China English in the translation of Chinese classics by comparing two versions of Tao Te Ching based on corpus data. Of the two English versions, one was translated by a well-known Chinese translator—Xu Yuanchong, and the other was translated by an American sinologist—Arthur Waley. This study found that Xu’s translation indicates more features of China English compared with Waley’s translation according to three major aspects. First, Xu’s translation is more concise, employing fewer words to translate Tao Te Ching. Second, Xu’s version features fewer clauses and more clear sentences. Third, the paratactic nature of China English is reflected in Xu’s translation, which has more content words and less cohesiveness. This study reveals the characteristics of China English in translation texts and partly fills the research gaps regarding the quantitative research in this field.

Recycling Plastics from WEEE: A Review of the Environmental and Human Health Challenges Associated with Brominated Flame Retardants

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) presents the dual characteristic of containing both hazardous substances and valuable recoverable materials. Mainly found in WEEE plastics, brominated flame retardants (BFRs) are a component of particular interest. Several actions have been taken worldwide to regulate their use and disposal, however, in countries where no regulation is in place, the recovery of highly valuable materials has promoted the development of informal treatment facilities, with serious consequences for the environment and the health of the workers and communities involved. Hence, in this review we examine a wide spectrum of aspects related to WEEE plastic management. A search of legislation and the literature was made to determine the current legal framework by region/country. Additionally, we focused on identifying the most relevant methods of existing industrial processes for determining BFRs and their challenges. BFR occurrence and substitution by novel BFRs (NBFRs) was reviewed. An emphasis was given to review the health and environmental impacts associated with BFR/NBFR presence in waste, consumer products, and WEEE recycling facilities. Knowledge and research gaps of this topic were highlighted. Finally, the discussion on current trends and proposals to attend to this relevant issue were outlined.

A review of 20 years of takaful literature using a systematic method

PurposeThe study aims to summarize the 20 years of literature published in takaful between 2000 and 2019 and propose some key areas as the directions for future research.Design/methodology/approachThe present study utilizes the systematic method of reviewing the literature. The SCOPUS database has been accessed, and 96 articles have been accounted for the analysis. The articles are grouped in their exclusive themes, such as consumer behavior, financial and nonfinancial performance, takaful models, human resources and governance.FindingsTakaful research has widely covered marketing, finance, human resource, governance and stresses on its legal issues. Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies have been employed. The research gaps have been classified based on the respective areas. Large share of current body of takaful literature consists of the studies related to the application of behavioural theories to examine the behavioural intention to take up takaful services.Originality/valueThe study enriches the literature of takaful by reviewing articles according to their respective themes, thereby contributing to the significant findings missing from existing literature surveys.

A Bibliometric Analysis of Fintech Trends and Digital Finance

Digital finance has piqued the curiosity of academics, students, and institutions all around the globe for more than a decade. Innovative financial services companies are offering a wide range of new financial products and new ways of interacting with customers via digital finance (Fintech). Research on finance and information systems has thus examined these shifts as well as the implications of technological advancements on the financial industry. Through presenting a bibliometric analysis, the article summarizes how scientific research has developed on the connections between financial technology developments and digital finance during the previous years. According to the ScienceDirect database, we base this literature review on journals and articles that have been published. We conducted a content analysis of 343 articles based on the discovered clusters, finding research gaps and suggesting actionable areas for further study. The results offer a solid path for future research in this area. We discuss the significance of the aforementioned publications and articles as well as potential areas of future study. The next step is to analyze the citation linkages between the most important articles to identify how they are related to one another. For financial technology research, the study looks at the way they are organized. The research is concerned with the roles of Fintech and the limits of research in digital financing. We point out potential routes for researchers to take to expand on current knowledge while also seeking possibilities for new, interesting, and creative research that adds to the expansion of the topic of research.