Determinants of future crop insurance purchase decisions among pepper growers in the South Hill Zone of Karnataka, India

Nowadays, social media influencers are one of the most important assets of many businesses that originate purchase decisions. The relevance of this paper is determined by the fact that it tries to fill in the research gap of literature determining the factors that might influence the purchase decisions of millennial consumers based on the theories of the constructs. The purpose is to determine the impact of brand value on the credibility of influencers over the purchase decision. Therefore, 412 millennial consumers from the city of Arequipa, Peru, were surveyed through an online form provided by Google. Then, the validation and descriptive statistics were made on the program SPSS. Additionally, the inferential statistics using the software Smart PLS. The results show a positive, significant, and direct relationship between the credibility of influencers and customers’ purchase decisions. Moreover, this relationship increases through the brand value when incorporated into the model as a mediator variable, facilitating the decision of consumers. In conclusion, it was estimated that consumers feel even more confident when social media influencers transmit the message showing specific brand attributes.

Acknowledgments
The authors thank the Universidad Nacional de San Agustin de Arequipa for its support in developing this project.
The present study has been self-financed by the authors.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
E-commerce has become one of Vietnam’s most dynamic and fastest-growing sectors, reshaping consumer purchasing behavior in the digital economy. This study investigates the key determinants of consumers’ trust and its mediating role in online purchase decisions in Vietnam. Primary data were collected through an online survey of 419 Vietnamese consumers who had made at least one purchase on major e-commerce platforms (e.g., Shopee, TikTok, Facebook) during the previous six months. This sampling frame ensured that all respondents had recent and relevant experience with online shopping in Vietnam’s e-commerce market. Data were collected between October 2024 and August 2025 using a structured questionnaire and analyzed with PLS-SEM in SmartPLS 4.1. The findings reveal that website quality (β = 0.235, p < 0.01), reference groups (β = 0.209, p < 0.01), perceived service quality (β = 0.184, p < 0.01), and information security (β = 0.171, p < 0.01) significantly enhance Vietnamese consumers’ trust in online shopping. Suppliers’ reputation (β = 0.106, p < 0.01) and suppliers’ size (β = 0.067, p < 0.01) indirectly strengthen consumers’ trust through website quality and perceived service quality, respectively. The study further confirms that trust serves as an essential mediating construct, meaningfully strengthening online purchase decisions among Vietnamese consumers (β = 0.608, p < 0.01). These findings underscore the central importance of trust in shaping consumer behavior in emerging e-commerce markets, indicating that enhancing website quality, improving service reliability, and strengthening data protection can contribute to more sustainable online purchasing behavior among Vietnamese consumers.

Acknowledgments
The authors received no financial support or external funding for conducting this research or preparing the manuscript. All analyses and interpretations were carried out independently by the authors.

A circular economy has become an innovative business model, though contentious, to replace a linear economy in achieving sustainable and efficient production. This study aims to investigate the level of awareness, adoption, and effect of factors driving the circular economy adoption on the financial performance of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Saudi Arabia. The survey was conducted among 301 MSMEs, and the method of logistic regression was utilized for its analysis. The results revealed that the level of awareness is averagely high, with an average of seven out of 10 enterprises. However, the outcome further showed that only an average of three out of 10 had implemented a circular economy during the period of the survey. In addition, logistic regression revealed the significant influence of drivers of circular economy adoption on the financial performance of MSMEs. The following drivers of circular economy adoption have a great likelihood and significant effect on the enterprise’s financial performance: training of employees, availability of financial resources, top management commitment, digital technology, product/service upgrade, material generated/buy back cheaper to use, and pressure from people. This is based on the outcome of logistic regression of the survey conducted on the factors driving circular economy adoption in the previous literature. However, the results revealed that regulatory incentives toward the environment and pressure from government and companies are not significant. Hence, this study provides policy implications for stakeholders in the circular economic system.