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This article reviews the role that the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) plays in China’s cultural and public diplomacy through training programmes organised by the Macao Forum and tailored for the elite of the world’s Portuguese-speaking countries (PSCs). It begins with a review of China’s approach to key instruments of its soft-power offensive and strategy towards the developing world, followed by an overview of Beijing’s linkages with each PSC. Formulated as an expression of China’s cultural diplomacy towards the PSCs, the seminars of the Macao Forum serve as a kind of cooperation in which the provider party—rather than delivering tangible goods and services such as food, money, loans or infrastructure—actually offers grey matter in the form of ideas for initiatives in public policies and reforms, in order to foster further economic development and administrative rationalisation. Adding to an intense debate and substantial literature that discuss quantitatively and qualitatively China’s role in and aid provision to Africa, the authors argue that China, through the Macao Forum’s training programmes, courts the developing PSCs by building the capacity of their human capital, targeting in particular those in the public and private sectors who are in a position to implement their ideas.

We review some general aspects about the Black–Scholes equation, which is used for predicting the fair price of an option inside the stock market. Our analysis includes the symmetry properties of the equation and its solutions. We use the Hamiltonian formulation for this purpose. Taking into account that the volatility inside the Black–Scholes equation is a parameter, we then introduce the Merton–Garman equation, where the volatility is stochastic, and then it can be perceived as a field. We then show how the Black–Scholes equation and the Merton–Garman one are locally equivalent by imposing a gauge symmetry under changes in the prices over the Black–Scholes equation. This demonstrates that the stochastic volatility emerges naturally from symmetry arguments. Finally, we analyze the role of the volatility on the decisions taken by the holders of the options when they use the solution of the Black–Scholes equation as a tool for making investment decisions.

Purpose Research on battery electric vehicles (BEVs) has typically considered environmental concern a key determinant of behavioral intention that leads individuals to prefer electric vehicles. This paper challenges this assumption and argues that technology frameworks may require new variables to capture consumers' preferences. A UTAUT2-based study has been developed to assess the role of environmental concern in the BEVs context and put forward the technology show-off (TS) concept to explain the technology's acceptance. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative and cross-sectional look at behavioral intention is adopted. The study uses structural equation modeling to analyze a sample of 236 Macau residents to determine the relevance of the factors behind the choice to adopt BEVs. Findings The findings indicate that environmental concern and price may be relevant to explain behavioral intention to adopt the BEVs technology. Furthermore, the UTAUT2 framework seems to benefit from adding new variables, with TS playing a pertinent role in explaining technology acceptance. Social implications The findings show that environmental concern fails to build an argument for the shift to full electric mobility and promote the desired behavioral change toward adopting BEVs. Herein lies the necessity to consider new variables that can better describe the characteristics of modern society. Originality/value This paper proposes the TS construct, combining visibility and trialability as significant determinants of behavioral intention to use technology. The study also stresses the need to reconsider the role of environmental concerns' impact on consumer decision-making.

The spontaneous symmetry breaking phenomena applied to Quantum Finance considers that the martingale state in the stock market corresponds to a ground (vacuum) state if we express the financial equations in the Hamiltonian form. The original analysis for this phenomena completely ignores the kinetic terms in the neighborhood of the minimal of the potential terms. This is correct in most of the cases. However, when we deal with the martingale condition, it comes out that the kinetic terms can also behave as potential terms and then reproduce a shift on the effective location of the vacuum (martingale). In this paper, we analyze the effective symmetry breaking patterns and the connected vacuum degeneracy for these special circumstances. Within the same scenario, we analyze the connection between the flow of information and the multiplicity of martingale states, providing in this way powerful tools for analyzing the dynamic of the stock markets.

The article analyses the media system in Macao, a special administrative region of China that transitioned from Portuguese to Chinese sovereignty in 1999, becoming one of cities in the world with the largest number of published newspapers per capita. Combining historical research with the analysis of contemporary empirical data collected through interviews with journalists working on the ground, the research demonstrates how there is a long tradition of state control that goes back to the colonial era and that has assumed different forms, ranging from outright censorship to physical intimidation of journalists and economic dependence on the government. Limitations and control strategies imposed on news reporting during the Portuguese administration continue to be practiced today by the Chinese authorities. Even so, journalists operating on the Macao media market tend to overstate the level of freedom they are given, which can be attributed to media outlets being economically dependent on the state. Nevertheless, the level of freedom attributed to the press is today higher than it had been during the colonial period with some critical voices being allowed to reach the media. This needs to be understood in the context of what has been defined as the Chinese safety valve strategy.

Macau Special Administration Region (Macau SAR) is in the process of revising legislation concerning special and inclusive education. While the institutional discourse revolves around establishing inclusive education, it is unclear as to how the proposed changes will enable or depress this from occurring. This research, therefore, examined teachers� attitudes towards inclusion as an indication of how well the new legislation may be received. Specifically, it investigated the interplay between 508 teachers working in private schools in Macau, that identified themselves as being inclusive schools, and teachers� sentiments and attitudes towards the acceptance of inclusion and the role that Confucian values might play in shaping these attitudes. Discussion focusses on four key outcomes that need to be addressed if a significant improvement in including all children in regular schools in Macau is to be achieved. These include the need (1) to clarify the concept of inclusion at government, school, and teacher levels as it currently has ambiguous meaning; (2) to provide teachers with more opportunities to have systematic contacts with students with SEN, as this is crucial to improving their sentiments and attitudes toward people with disability; (3) to provide professional learning about inclusive education with better partnerships between teacher education institutions and schools to bridge theory and practice; and (4) to review the hidden influence of the subtle levels of time-honoured Confucian beliefs in Macau, which are not manifest nor easily detected but possibly have a deep impact on day-to-day practices.

Macau Special Administration Region (Macau SAR) is in the process of revising legislation concerning special and inclusive education. While the institutional discourse revolves around establishing inclusive education, it is unclear as to how the proposed changes will enable or depress this from occurring. This research, therefore, examined teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion as an indication of how well the new legislation may be received. Specifically, it investigated the interplay between 508 teachers working in private schools in Macau, that identified themselves as being inclusive schools, and teachers’ sentiments and attitudes towards the acceptance of inclusion and the role that Confucian values might play in shaping these attitudes. Discussion focusses on four key outcomes that need to be addressed if a significant improvement in including all children in regular schools in Macau is to be achieved. These include the need (1) to clarify the concept of inclusion at government, school, and teacher levels as it currently has ambiguous meaning; (2) to provide teachers with more opportunities to have systematic contacts with students with SEN, as this is crucial to improving their sentiments and attitudes toward people with disability; (3) to provide professional learning about inclusive education with better partnerships between teacher education institutions and schools to bridge theory and practice; and (4) to review the hidden influence of the subtle levels of time-honoured Confucian beliefs in Macau, which are not manifest nor easily detected but possibly have a deep impact on day-to-day practices.

This article explores how state and society relations have been affected by the development of information technology in China over the past 20 years. It argues that despite all the transformative changes that such technology has helped bring about, ?benefits? have to be weighed in terms of both empowerment of society and strengthening of state capacity. Ultimately, the digital challenge has not translated into a weakening of the authoritarian state, and this can be explained by the very nature of the party-state in China and how it has managed to make use of communication tools that prove to be both constructive and divisive.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of Special Administrative Region (SAR) performance on the “trust” of Hong Kong and Macau people, who “live” under similar context of “one country, two systems,” toward Beijing Central Government. The different perceptions, relating to the abovementioned issue, of the young peoples’ are also investigated. Implication for civic education in these two societies will be brought to light. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts secondary data analysis on the captioned topic. To further illustrate the said issue, this study reviews and analyzes data from protest campaigns in both societies. Findings This paper finds that the performance of Hong Kong and Macau SAR Governments has different impacts on the peoples’ “trust” toward Central Government. It may attribute to the different perceptions about the role of Central Government and levels of democratization in these societies. Civic education emphasizing the “core spirit” of “One country, two systems,” roles of SAR and Central Governments could enable young people better comprehend their relationship with Mainland China and their role as SAR–Chinese citizens. Originality/value This paper is an exploratory study for providing implications for further research on this topic.

We prove the consistency of the different approaches for deriving the black hole radiation for the spherically symmetric case inside the theory of Massive Gravity. By comparing the results obtained by using the Bogoliubov transformations with those obtained by using the Path Integral formulation, we find that in both cases, the presence of the extra-degrees of freedom creates the effect of extra-particles creation due to the distortions on the definitions of time defined by the different observers at large scales. This, however, does not mean extra-particle creation at the horizon level. Instead, the apparent additional particles perceived at large scales emerge from how distant observers define their time coordinate, which is distorted due to the existence of extra-degrees of freedom.

In the wave of digital transformation, Chinese banks have prioritized digital banking services as key strategic goals, aiming to revolutionize the mobile banking experience. This study aims to assess the factors influencing the willingness to use the various financial and contextual services offered through digital banking. Specifically, it is proposed a model based on users' perceptions of mobile banking scenarios and examines how the development of digital banking services influences users' willingness to use them. The study involved qualitative in-depth interviews with 12 mobile banking users, with the interview content analyzed using Nvivo qualitative analysis software. The data analysis identified 9 core coding categories: Financial Professionalism, Security, Marketing Stimulation, Innovative Products, Use Experience, Strong Relationship, Trust, Perceived Usefulness, and Willingness to Use. These categories were further refined to construct a theoretical model of user willingness in digital banking services, drawing from the optimized Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The findings provide valuable insights for the banking industry in Macau, aiding in understanding customer needs and supporting the positive development of mobile finance and contextual digital banking services in the region.