IntroductionPopulation ageing and rapid digital transformation are increasing older adults' participation in e-commerce, yet the relationship between their online consumption patterns and national-level economic conditions remains insufficiently understood. This study examines the associations between different categories of online consumption among individuals aged 55–74 and national-level economic conditions across 24 European Union countries and explores how these associations vary across different temporal specifications.MethodsUsing panel data for 2013–2024, the study analyses e-commerce sector revenue, net national income per capita (NNI), and gross national income per capita (GNI) using descriptive statistics, multiple regression, fixed-effects regression, and time-lag analysis.ResultsThe results reveal substantial heterogeneity across online consumption categories. Positive associations with national-level economic conditions are observed for travel and accommodation services, periodicals, pharmaceuticals, and electronics, whereas clothing, food products, ICT services, and event tickets exhibit comparatively stronger negative associations. Notable associations are also observed in the one-year lag specification, indicating that the estimated relationships between online consumption patterns among individuals aged 55–74 and national-level economic conditions vary across temporal specifications.DiscussionThe findings provide empirical evidence consistent with the proposed Digital Paradox of the Silver Economy, suggesting that the economic implications of digital participation depend on the composition of online consumption rather than its overall level. The study advances a conceptual framework for understanding the heterogeneous economic outcomes of digital participation in ageing societies and highlights the importance of distinguishing among different forms of online consumption in research and policy on the silver economy.
Migration research increasingly distinguishes between desired mobility and the capabilities required to realize it. Yet this distinction remains insufficiently developed in return migration research, where aspirations, intentions, expectations, and actual return are often treated as closely aligned. In this Perspective, we argue that return should instead be examined as a future-oriented project whose realization depends on migrants' effective opportunities to act. We propose the return aspiration–capability gap to describe the discrepancy between a desired return and the capabilities available to enact it. These capabilities are shaped by economic, institutional, relational, and place-based resources and conditions. We focus particularly on social protection as an underexamined component of this configuration. Pension income, portable social rights, healthcare access, and institutional accessibility may expand return capability, whereas fragmented contribution histories, non-portable benefits, administrative barriers, and insecure legal status may constrain it. We further conceptualize the portability–mobility paradox as one mechanism through which rights accumulated through international mobility may subsequently restrict further mobility when they cannot move with their holders. The gap need not result in permanent immobility; it may be expressed through delayed return, constrained staying, recurrent cross-border mobility, recalibration of return aspirations, or return followed by renewed migration. We conclude by proposing an aspiration-sensitive research and policy agenda that distinguishes what migrants desire, expect, intend, and are effectively capable of doing.
The integration of digital financial solutions has become essential for enhancing the sustainability and competitiveness of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), especially in developing economies. This study examined MSME readiness in terms of digital capability, financial literacy, infrastructure readiness, and strategic orientation in relation to the integration of digital financial systems. Using a quantitative, cross-sectional research design, data were collected from 189 MSMEs in Surigao del Sur, Philippines, and analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression techniques. The findings revealed a strong positive relationship between MSME readiness and the level of digital financial integration. MSMEs with higher levels of readiness demonstrated greater improvements in business performance, operational efficiency, and financial stability, whereas those with lower levels of readiness gained only limited benefits. The results also indicated that full and systematic integration produced better outcomes than partial adoption. Overall, the study highlights that readiness is a key driver of successful digital transformation among MSMEs and emphasizes the need for targeted interventions to strengthen their capabilities and support sustainable digital finance adoption.
IntroductionThe movement of generative artificial intelligence from still-image to moving-image creation has reshaped the symbolic mechanism of human-AI co-creation.MethodsThis comparative observational study asks how prompt expression changes when the output shifts from static images to moving images, comparing two large-scale public prompt corpora under one neural topic-modeling protocol that combines lexical analysis of style, quality, technical, motion, camera, and format vocabulary with manual family coding and validity checks, and adds an exploratory user-focused topic structure.ResultsVideo prompts weaken the style, quality, and technical decoration characteristic of image prompts and instead organize meaning around action, scene, and screen format. Because the corpora differ in platform ecology, model generation, period, and corpus construction as well as in modality, these differences are described rather than causally attributed, and the format result is the most interface-sensitive of them. Artist-style imitation loses its earlier prominence, a decline that survives the coding reliability checks, while everyday action and scene description forms the largest family in the adjudicated solution, a position that is sensitive to those checks.DiscussionPrompting practice moved from selecting aesthetic styles toward specifying how a scene moves and how it is framed, and the prompting grammar observed here appears bound to the modality and the period. The terms that organized image prompts did not carry over intact to video prompts. These patterns suggest that the symbolic interface of human-AI co-creation is not a fixed grammar but an adaptive arrangement that responds to the salient capabilities of a generative system. The study contributes a comparative account of how the division of creative labor is reconfigured across media modalities, with implications for co-creation theory, generative interface design, and media literacy education.
