Vol. 15 No. 1(I)SI (2023)

With the continuous progress of Internet information technology and the further strengthening of Internet popularity in China, the evolving circumstance of its cross-border e-commerce platforms is presently fully operating. In particular, the B2C platforms for import cross-border e-commerce are developing rapidly. This article first provides a brief introduction to the development status of China's import cross-border ecommerce. It then reviews and synthesizes relevant literature about imported cross-border e-commerce. Based on the collation of literature, this article analyses existing marketing strategies of B2C platforms within the import cross-border e-commerce industry and comprehends the relevant marketing problems generated by these platform providers via two identified case analyses. Finally, combined with the current status of international trade procedures and cross-border e-commerce development trends, the corresponding marketing strategy improvement is proposed.

The expansion of the insurance sector has a profound effect on a country's economy. Insurance companies experienced a slowdown in premiums during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in the life sector. Due to consumers' discretionary decision to spend less on life insurance policies, premium volumes decreased globally. One way to provide income protection for dependents or beneficiaries upon the death of an insured person, total permanent disability, or policy contract maturity is through life insurance. This study, therefore, this study considers recent events as it examines the factors that influence the demand for life insurance in Malaysia. The ordinary least square (OLS) method is employed using 34 years of data spanning from 1988 until 2021. The result of VECM showed that Income positively affects demand in the long run, while the other two variables, savings, and unemployment negatively affect demand in the long run. The empirical findings are expected to enrich the existing literature and to create awareness of the benefits that life insurance may offer in potential risks transferred to the insurer. Furthermore, the research findings could also help policymakers create preventative measures to protect life insurance companies from the consequences of diminished market confidence in the slowdown of the business cycle.

The increasing publication and citation performances of Firm Efficiency research for the past 35 years have attracted scholars to further embark on this area. Hence, the main objective of this study is to explore what scholars have learned from Firm Efficiency research over the past 35 years. This study uses bibliometric analysis to analyze top productive countries, top 10 journals, top 10 prominent authors, top 20 cited articles, and emerging themes. Selected findings indicated that the United States, China and Taiwan are the top three most productive countries in Firm Efficiency research. In addition, five emerging themes were highlighted in Firm Efficiency research for the past 35 years. The five themes were: 1) Stochastic Frontier Analysis in measuring firm productivity and size, 2) Bootstrapping DEA and SFA in measuring firm efficiency, 3) Corporate Governance and Technical Efficiency, 4) DEA as benchmarking in Firm Efficiency, and 5) Capital Structure and Ownership Structure. This study provides three contributions – 1) encourage scholars to observe the trends in publication and citation performances. 2) Allow scholars and authors to collaborate with an expert in Firm Efficiency research in the future, and 3) inspire the authors to look at the potential research gap and future directions in Firm Efficiency research.