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Macau is facing problems on how to moderately diversify its economy, improving its air quality, water quality, and waste management, and improving its biodiversity. The research aim is to investigate and propose how Macau can achieve moderate economic diversification, environmental protection, ecological protection and preservation in line with sustainable development goal 8, 9, 12, 13, and 15. Using documentary analysis, extensive literature review, and analyzing of Macau situation, the following findings are suggested: - Research and development using the university institutions on areas ranging from hospitality and tourism management, telecommunication engineering, electrical & electronic engineering, automation and control, computer science and engineering, transportation science and technology, nanoscience & nanotechnology, instrument science and technology, biomedical engineering, as well as relevant infrastructure, policy and financial support, - Talent attraction for specialised industries with stringent requirements due to the limited capacity of Macau, - Financial market development for financing, capital accumulation, and wealth management, - Focus on tourism-related industry, then big data and technology leveraging Hengqin, and then financial industry for supporting, - Better method to reduce air pollution through more energy efficient industrial facilities with less greenhouse gases emission, - Better water quality and pollution management through water pollution management, water resource conservation, the development of environmentally friendly technologies to control water pollution, - Polluter pay law such as Japan's Basic Environment Law, Waste Management and Public Cleansing Law, - Producer’s responsibility law such as home appliance recycling law, containers and packaging recycling law, and - A framework for biodiversity protection including a combination of legislative, technical, and community-based initiatives, as well as a comprehensive wildlife protection law.

Macau's retail industry was familiar to all sectors. Retailers take up massive responsibility for the Macau economy. There are few manufacturers in Macau, so products and goods are imported. As the front-line staff of a retail store, employees would need to face many people daily; it can be tiring and stressful for them. Therefore, this study examined the motivational factors of front-line staff in the retail industry. It is crucial to understand various motivational factors, as one of the challenges that retail entrepreneurs face is employee retention. This study evaluated the characteristics of motivation so that managers can develop some strategies for their employees. The qualitative research method was adopted in this study. In-depth interviews were conducted to determine various motivators and the reasons behind their motivation. This study used purposive sampling, and eight candidates were selected to conduct the interview. The results of the interviews concluded that monetary rewards like salary and sales incentives have the most significant effect on motivation. Relationships with colleagues and superiors also affect their motivation in the working environment. Moreover, employee benefits like public holidays, maternity leave, etc, are also one of the motivators. Different participants mentioned other motivators, such as recognition, teamwork, learning and growth opportunities, teamwork, and fit of interest. Based on the research question, this study concluded that monetary rewards have a larger effect on employees' motivation than job benefits. Managers and leaders can develop strategies based on this research, and future research can also examine some other motivational factors with a larger sample

The purpose of this study is to understand the problems and experiences of Macao's regular classroom pre-school teachers in teaching and counseling children with special needs, in order to further explore the professional growth and development process of regular classroom pre-school teachers in the orientation of integrated education. This study adopts a qualitative narrative research methodology, using semi-structured in-depth interviews and textual data collected from the research participants' research journals and teaching diaries to analyze the stories related to the three preschool teachers in the educational field, and according to the results of the data analysis were as following: 1. The professional growth and development of the three teachers in pre-school integration, from novice teachers to professional teachers, need to go through a long period of exploration and adaptation, where teachers continue to refine their professional knowledge and teaching skills to cope with the challenges of problems in the education process, but the progression from professional to expert teachers is affected by both internal and external factors, that teachers are unable to make the transition into it. 2. The three teachers' dilemmas are at different stages. It was found that among the four major dilemmas faced by the teachers, there were teaching, classroom management, support system and professional knowledge in IE, and among them, the support system and professional knowledge in IE were the ones that the teachers considered the most desirable to get in order to have good conditions for implementing IE in ordinary classes. 3. This study suggests that teachers need to be able to adapt their mindset to face different challenges at work. Active Enhancement of IE Knowledge to Cope with Various Educational Issues; schools should assist teachers in the implementation of IE and act as a bridge between parents and teachers. Define the development intention of the school so as to establish a clear direction and avoid internal confusion; government needs to consider the extension of the policy to safeguard the learning rights of Pupils with Special Educational Needs (Pupils with Special Educational Needs). Promote the concept of IE in the community so that it can be widely recognized by the public, thereby gaining more support. There must be a comprehensive training and continuous growth and development for IE Teachers, in order to establish a clear and standardized curriculum. Organize cross-school professional exchanges for qualified IE teachers to enhance their professional knowledge. 本研究旨在透過瞭解澳門普通班學前教師對特殊需要幼兒教學與輔導的問題與經驗，以進一步探討普通班學前教師融合教育導向的專業發展歷程。 　　本研究採用質性敘事研究方法，使用半結構式深度訪談，並透過研究參與者的研究日記、教學日誌等蒐集文本資料，分析三位學前教師在教育現場內的相關故事，根據資料分析結果發現如下： 一、三位教師的學前融合專業成長發展，從新手型教師到專業型教師需要經歷一段漫長的時間探索和適應，在此教師持續精進自己的專業知識和教學技能，以應對教育過程中的問題挑戰，但從專業型教師到專家型教師這個進階過程受到內在和外在的因素影響，因此，教師雖然初現這階段的特質，但未具備相應的專業力能。 二、通過三位教師不同階段的困境問題發現，所面對的四大困境中，包括有教　 　　學方面、班級管理方面、支援系統方面和融合教育專業知能方面，而當中 　　支援系統和融合教育專業知能方面是教師認為最希望獲得的支持，才能讓 　　教師擁有良好的條件在普通班中實施融合教育。 三、本研究建議，教師需要懂得調適心態，以面對工作上的不同挑戰。積極增 　　進融合教育知能，以應對各類的教育問題；學校方面應協助教師開展融合 　　教育的工作，做好家長與教師的橋樑。明確學校的發展意向，從而建立清 　　晰的目標走向，避免造成內部混亂；政府方面需要考量政策的延伸性，以 　　保障普特幼兒的學習權益。將融合教育的理念推進社區，讓大眾廣泛認 　　識，從而獲得更多的支持力。建立明確標準化的融合教育教師培育模式， 　　使融合教育教師的培育過程有着全面性和連續性的成長發展。組織合資格 　　的融合教育教師跨校專業交流，以提升教師專業知能。

In early 2020, the COVID-19 virus spread rapidly around the world within months. After countries around the world announced the outbreak of COVID-19, many industries suffered a severe recession, but a few industries were able to buck the trend and maintain good performance. The outbreak has driven strong demand for medical products and pharmaceuticals. As the epidemic continues to spread, people are in urgent need of drugs and vaccines to treat COVID-19, which directly promotes the development of the pharmaceutical industry (Alam et al., 2021). This study aims to explore the impact of announcements from the World Health Organization (WHO) or similar official agencies on the development of the epidemic during the COVID-19 epidemic on the stock prices of specific pharmaceutical companies. The study uses event study methodology to analyze the impact of events in the COVID-19 pandemic on these companies. Through an event study on 7 major events during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study found that the stock price changes of different pharmaceutical companies are not uniform. The WHO announcement of a global pandemic and the emergency authorization announcement of drugs have had different significant impacts on different types of pharmaceutical companies. This study provides new information for understanding the stock return change of specific pharmaceutical companies during the COVID-19 epidemic

The rapid development of counselling began after World War II. Meanwhile, texting services became available in the 1980s. Texting has been widely applied in both health area and mental health areas. A chatbot is a specific type of artificial intelligence (AI) that can have conversations with humans through texting. The combination of counselling and texting is known as chat counselling. The effectiveness of chatbots in alleviating psychological symptoms was supported by scientific research. Nonetheless, people hold different perceptions towards chatbots. Some common factors in counselling, including empathy and warmth, were also important in evaluating AI chatbots. Other important factors included acceptability, satisfaction and trust. The current study is the first to use AI as a counsellor. This study investigates people’s perceptions of human and AI counsellors (ChatGPT) and whether people can differentiate between human and AI. Participants needed to rate the counsellors in three scenarios: the original scenario taken from a training book, the human counsellor scenario generated from a text conversation with a human counsellor and the AI counsellor scenario produced by texting with ChatGPT, which acts as the counsellor. Prompts used to generate conversation with ChatGPT are included. The dialogues were parts of the conversations containing similar client responses and were presented using the WhatsApp interface. Questionnaires were delivered both online and in paper form. Results demonstrated that people’s ratings of human counsellors and AI counsellors did not differ in perceived empathy, acceptability, and satisfaction. While the warmth and trustworthiness of AI counsellors were perceived to be higher than those of human counsellors. On the other hand, people were unable to differentiate between human and AI counsellors in uncertain conditions. Younger people and the general population are more accurate in identifying between humans and AI, while people above 40 and psychologists or counsellors are less capable of doing so. The current study supports the potential of utilising ChatGPT in counselling. Having people experience and evaluate real chat counselling with human and AI counsellors can potentially eliminate some limitations of the current studies. Future studies can investigate how prior knowledge contributes to AI detection and examine AI counsellors' efficiency in longitudinal studies

The current study examined responses from 342 full-time and part-time employees in Macau’s gaming and public sector. The intention was to examine the relationship and explore the effect of organizational culture (innovative, supportive, and bureaucratic) and organizational leadership (transformational and transactional) on employee work engagement (cognitive, emotional, and physical) with the moderating role of organizational commitment (affective and continuance). The objectives of this study are mainly: 1) to explore the relationship between organizational culture and leadership with employee engagement respectively; 2) to further investigate employee engagement and the difference between the gaming sector and the public sector, and 3) to explore the moderating role of organizational commitment between the organizational culture and leadership to employee engagement respectively. Understanding the relationship between these essential elements is crucial for the individual and organization which ultimately leads to a sustainable and utmost performance for the benefit of Macau's constant economic development. While regression analysis represented transformational leadership as the powerful predictor of the three facets of work engagement to employees in both sectors. Though there was no relationship between the variables and the moderators, there was a positive interaction between transformational leadership, affective commitment (TFL x AC), and emotional and physical work engagement of the employees from the gaming sector, there was a positive interaction between innovative culture, affective commitment (IC x AC) and cognitive work engagement and a negative interaction between transactional leadership, continuance commitment (TL x CC) and emotional work engagement in the public sector subgroup. Results were interpreted concerning the organizations, leaders, and employees in both sectors in Macau, followed by a discussion on the implications of enhancing work engagement

Though Cartesian dualism has been criticized for decades, it still prevails as a strongly dominant cultural mindset rooted in people’s minds, especially in the social environments that we experience. Along with it, there is not only a loss of attention to our own bodies but also a loss of the recognition of the experience of inter-subjective reciprocity. Therefore, I hope, through the methodology and virtue of phenomenology, especially from the phenomenological-ontological account of the body/flesh from the modern French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty, to help my readers to overcome convincingly and detach themselves from the traditional Cartesian mindset. I argue that the body is born as a communicative-reciprocal being that sustains a priori connection with all other things in the world, and with the world. The body is a lived body and a transcendental being that cannot be reduced to fit in the present reductionistic mathematical-scientific idealized frameworks. After pointing out the insufficiencies in traditional mathematical scientific and Cartesian accounts of the body in Chapter One, my argument will be unfolded along with reflections on the common experiences in daily life and the textual analyses respectively contributed by Merleau-Ponty’s works The Phenomenology of Perception, especially in Chapter Two, and The Visible and the Invisible, especially in Chapter Three.

This research is to assess the current status quo, strengths, and weaknesses of financial consumer protection mechanisms in Macao. According to the World Bank, financial consumer protection can bring positive impact on the development of financial sector, broadening financial inclusion and fostering economic growth. In 2022, under the backdrop of COVID-19 and downturn in economy, Macao Government announced its ambition to recover and diversify the economy of Macao by leveraging “1+4” Diversified Development Strategy, in which developing modern finance is one of the main priorities. The new Financial System Act took into effect on 1st November 2023 and this Act will enable non-financial institutions to apply for temporary licenses on fin-tech innovations within a controllable risk area. In the local context, does Macao have a strong financial consumer protection mechanism in place to goal for developing modern finance and face challenges brought by fin-tech? In this research, a mixed method consisting of doctrinal legal research method and comparative legal research method is adopted. 10 jurisdictions (Ireland, Singapore, Australia, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, European Union, Canada, and United States) were selected in comparison of rights for financial consumer protection based on the G20/OECD High-Level Principles on Financial Consumer Protection and the results of which were then compared to the rights for financial consumer protection in Macao. The findings of this study show that the main strength of financial consumer protection mechanisms in Macao lies on the supervision of the Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM) on the banking sector and insurance sector, other financial institutions according to international principles; however, the in-depthness of work done by Macao in financial consumer protection is not as much as those done by other jurisdictions: in Macao, there is no policyholder protection scheme in the event of failure of insurance companies; no mystery shopping and consumer survey done by oversight bodies; narrow range of definition of vulnerable consumers; no financial literacy survey; no in-depth competition law; no in-depth guidelines to monitor advertising materials for financial products; no database for consumers to search for unregulated firms and scammers; no in-depth financial educational materials about the rights of financial consumers. It is recommended that Macao Government can learn from United Kingdom, Canada and European Union to adopt behavioural insights in developing financial consumer protection policy to protect financial consumers from being exploited by the financial service providers based on the consumers’ behavioural biases. Some literature suggested that consumers are vulnerable in digital landscape. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that Macao Government shall take proactive actions to strengthen the current financial consumer protection mechanism by adhering to the G20/OECD High-Level Principles on Financial Consumer Protection, in order to develop modern finance and protect consumers from the risks posed by fin-tech

As Macau's society rapidly develops, the education system of Macau also continues to develop, including early childhood education. The competency of early childhood teachers in Macau plays an important role in the future development of education. Teacher competency includes four main dimensions: educational ability, work attitude, psychological factors, and motivation. This paper focuses on exploring these dimensions and the differences in teacher competency among Macau's early childhood educators, considering their personal background variables. Moreover, this research investigates the factors such as the working attitude of teachers, their professional development needs, and motivation that affect their teaching in early childhood education. Historically, understandings of teacher competency in Macau's early childhood education were primarily analyzed through t-tests and one-way Anova of survey data, which tend to have lower reliability and validity. This paper employs confirmatory factor analysis among other methods to conduct empirical research on the current state of teacher competency, aiming to advance the development of teacher competency in Macau with more reliable data. This paper uses literature review methodology to gather relevant research and analyzes the information gathered, by using a self-assessment questionnaire on early childhood teacher competency to conduct a survey among 187 early childhood teachers in Macau. This can help to understand their competency levels and how these correlates with their personal background variables. The integrated data from the teacher self-assessment questionnaires indicate that the overall level of teacher competency in Macau is acceptable. In terms of the 4 early childhood teacher competency factors, the psychological factors got the highest score, while their educational abilities got a lower score. The differential analysis conducted on the evaluated teachers shows there are significant differences in early childhood teacher competency among different age groups and years of teaching experience. This research aims to provide more data and information to Macau's education related departments and kindergarten management, to formulate targeted teacher training and career development plans of teachers, which can help to improve the overall teaching quality and job satisfaction of teachers in Macau's early childhood education. The research suggests that future research should expand the research subjects to early childhood teachers from different cultural backgrounds, increase the use of interviews and case analysis (adopting mixed research methods), and analyze the differences in personal background variables and the competency of Macau's early childhood teachers. 澳門社會飛速進步的同時，其教育體系也在不斷發展，而幼兒教育在塑 造孩子未來發展的基礎上扮演著至關重要的角色。故澳門幼兒教師勝任力對於 幼兒教育的未來發展具有不可忽視的重要性。教師勝任力(Teacher Competency) 包含教育能力、工作態度、心理因素和動機等四大維度。本文著重探討這四個 維度和教師的個人背景變項與澳門幼兒教師勝任力的差異性。同時，也會關注 教師的工作態度、專業發展需求及動機等因素對幼兒教師教學的影響。過去， 人們對澳門幼兒教師勝任力的了解較多使用 t 檢驗及單因數變異數進行問卷數 據分析，其有效性及可靠性相對較低。針對上述問題，本文採用驗證性因素分 析等方法對幼兒教師的勝任力現狀進行了實證研究，期望以更可靠的數據推動 澳門幼兒教師勝任力的發展。本文使用文獻分析法整合相關文獻及就研究資訊 進行分析，並使用幼兒教師勝任力自評定問卷對澳門 187 名幼兒教師進行問卷 調查，以了解澳門幼兒教師的勝任力及個人背景變項與澳門幼兒教師勝任力的 差異性。整合教師自評問卷數據後結果如下: 澳門幼兒教師勝任力總體水準尚可， 就勝任力特質表現而言，幼兒教師的心理因素最好，幼兒教師的教育能力較差。 而對被評價幼兒教師進行差異分析的結果顯示：不同年齡段和教齡與幼兒教師 勝任力有顯著差異。 本研究有望為澳門教育相關部門和幼稚園管理層提供更多數據和資訊， 以制定針對性的教師培訓和職業發展計劃，提高澳門幼兒教育整體教學品質和 教師職業滿意度。建議未來研究擴展研究對象至不同文化背景的幼兒教師、增加訪談和個案分析的部分(採用混合研究方法)和分析個人背景變項與澳門幼兒 教師勝任力的差異性。

The extent of citizens' trust in government determines the success or failure of e-government initiatives. Nevertheless, the idiosyncrasies of the concept and the broad spectrum of its approach still present relevant challenges. This work presents a systematic literature review on e-government trust while elaborating and summarizing a conceptual analysis of trust, introducing evaluation methods for government trust, and compiling relevant research on e-government trust and intentional behavior. A total of 26 key factors that constitute trust have been identified and classified into six categories: Government trust, Trust in Internet and technology (TiIT), Trust in e-government (TiEG), Personal Beliefs, Trustworthiness, and Trust of intermediary (ToI). The value added of this work consists of developing a conceptual framework of TiEG to provide a significant reference for future in-depth studies and research on e-government trust.

"This study investigates the perspectives, challenges, and strategies of STEM teachers in Macau as they integrate STEM education into their curricula. STEM teachers in Macau generally consider the integration of STEM education essential for enhancing students' creativity and problem-solving abilities. However, during the implementation process, they face challenges such as insufficient resources, limited opportunities for professional development, and difficulties in interdisciplinary collaboration, which restrict the effectiveness of STEM teaching. This study employed a qualitative research approach, conducting in-depth, semi-structured interviews with STEM teachers in primary and secondary schools in Macau to understand their experiences and needs. Purposeful sampling was used to ensure diversity and representativeness of the sample. The findings indicate that schools lack sufficient STEM teaching resources (such as equipment and materials), and limited professional development opportunities prevent teachers from effectively mastering new technologies and teaching methods. Furthermore, interdisciplinary teaching is constrained by challenges in collaboration and curriculum design. Low student engagement and insufficient parental support also affect the effectiveness of STEM education. The results suggest that schools should enhance resource allocation, promote professional development for STEM teachers in Macau, and encourage interdisciplinary teaching collaboration to improve the quality of STEM education, thus strengthening students' creativity and problem-solving skills. These findings offer valuable insights for STEM educators and policymakers to foster the comprehensive development of STEM education.

Today, social media has become one of the main marketing strategies used by marketers and practitioners to target travelers from all over the world. Macau is a city that relies heavily on tourism for economic development, however, little is known about how social media affects tourists’ choices to travel to Macau. This study explores the role of the popular social media platform Xiaohongshu in influencing Chinese tourists’ travel decisions and information acquisition when visiting Macau. This article uses qualitative research methods to conduct semi-structured interviews with 15 participants. Research shows travelers rely on Xiaohongshu’s user-generated content and detailed guides. Food, route selection and itinerary arrangements, and short-term itinerary arrangements are the most frequently mentioned search tags by travelers. The platform’s personalized recommendations and efficient content presentation enhance the user experience, but concerns about content credibility remain, especially the potential for commercial bias in food recommendations. Travelers assess the credibility of content through a variety of strategies, including looking at multiple posts, evaluating user interactions, and the platform’s IP address display capabilities. Although travelers pay more attention to positive reviews when deciding to travel to Macau, users also consider travel pitfalls posts to improve their travel experience. In addition, travelers are less willing to share content on the Xiaohongshu platform after the trip, which is attributed to personal habits and perceived creativity complexity. The research results provide relevant practitioners with the perspectives and decision-making behaviors of Chinese travelers who use Xiaohongshu when making itineraries to Macau, and provide guidance for their marketing strategies.

The understanding of how people accept and embrace new policies is vital in today's world. This paper introduces an original way of looking at this by adapting the widely recognized Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT-2). The goal is to provide a foundational model for assessing policy acceptance. More specifically, we adapted the UTAUT-2 framework to study how Macau residents perceive the "Northbound Travel for Macau Vehicles" policy, which allows cars with Macau registration plates to enter China. Using structural equation modeling software (SmartPLS), we analyze data collected from 136 respondents who experienced the policy.Our findings reveal that Performance Expectancy (PE) and Habit (HB) significantly influence individuals' intention to take advantage of the policy. In other words, people are more likely to embrace policies they perceive as beneficial and that align with their existing habits. Effort Expectancy (EE) and Facilitating Conditions (FC) do not significantly impact acceptance, perhaps as a result of participants' familiarity with the policy and their resource availability. Surprisingly, while not directly tied to usage, Social Influence (SI) shows a high mean value, suggesting its potential role in policy acceptance when influential individuals adopt the policy. This pioneering research contributes to the field by bridging the gap between technology acceptance models and policy studies. Most importantly, it validates the use of the UTAUT-2 as a technology framework that is adapted for assessing policy acceptance.

In a world where sustainable food choices are becoming increasingly important, this study explores the connection between food neophilia — the desire to experiment with new foods — and people's willingness to include insects in their diets. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), our research delves into how neophilia (NP) moderates respondents’ attitude (ATT), social norms (SN), and perceived behavioral control (PBC) concerning the adoption of insects as a food source. The analysis draws from 160 self-administered surveys and employs structural equation modeling. Conducted in the context of Macau SAR (China), our study reveals the pivotal role that neophilia plays in shaping consumer attitudes and intentions. Notably, respondents generally expressed a willingness to explore novel culinary experiences. A positive moderating effect of neophilia on attitudes toward insect consumption is observed, suggesting that individuals with higher neophilia scores are more inclined to hold favorable intentions regarding insects as food. However, neophilia's influence on moderating SN and PBC exhibits contrasting effects, implying that a strong inclination for food neophilia may not necessarily leadto increased social pressure or perceived control in adopting insect-based diets. In light of these findings, this study recommends that practitioners and policymakers promote insect consumptionas an innovative and adventurous means of achieving sustainable nutrition. While the primary focus is on the impact of food neophilia on people's intention to consume insects as food, the study underscores the urgent need for diversified and sustainable dietary choices to address escalating environmental concerns and secure a resilient food supply for future generations.