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Financial inclusion is considered one of the strategic tools for sustainable development and one of the types of corporate social responsibility disclosures. This study aims to focus on the association between the disclosure of financial inclusion activities and Syrian banking companies’ performance.

Different regression models were suggested to examine the hypotheses leading to a better understanding of the relationship between financial inclusion and Syrian banking performance for the period 2005 to 2020 using the STATA 17.

The results showed a positive association between financial inclusion disclosure and Syrian bank performance, with low participation in financial inclusion activities (8%).

The study recommends that the Central Bank of Syria work on developing an index of financial inclusion for the Syrian environment, with the issuance of legislation and laws that obligate all listed banks to disclose their financial inclusion activities as a part of their social responsibility.

This study incorporates the relationship between the disclosure of financial inclusion activities and the performance of Syrian banking companies, which has been neglected by most studies on financial inclusion. Therefore, this study sheds light on this positive relationship, which could have important repercussions in reviving the deteriorating Syrian economy following the crisis it went through, which, in turn, led to Syria’s high inflation affecting the poor and vulnerable disproportionately.

Developing countries like India, accounts for about 40 percent of undernourished children in the World and it is largely due to the result of dietary inadequacy in relation to their needs. The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the changes in the nutritional status of the children, from their preschool days to the present primary school days.

The present investigation was conducted at 20 Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS) centers (Center-A) and 15 primary schools (Center-B) in Bali Gram Panchayat, Arambag, Hooghly District of West Bengal, India, at an interval of three to four years. A total of 1,012 children (boys=498; girls=514) aged two to six years old enrolled in these ICDS centers and a total of 603 children (boys=300, girls=303), aged five to ten years were studied from the 15 primary schools who were the beneficiaries of ICDS centers. Underweight (weight-for-age Z-score (WAZ)) and wasting (weight-for height Z-score (WHZ)) were used to assess the nutritional status.

The nutritional situation (both in case of underweight and wasting) was better in Center B as compared with Center A. In general, the nutritional condition of boys was better than girls. Center had a very significant effect on both WAZ as well as WHZ, irrespective of age and sex. Sex has a significant impact only on WAZ. Interestingly, there was no significant sex-center interaction for both WAZ as well as WHZ. The children of the area were getting Mid Day Meal supplied through the school authorities which was comparatively better than the ICDS centers’ food supplementation. Better monitoring of nutritional supplementation at primary schools may be an important factor.

In ICDS centers, only the Anganwari worker is responsible in running and implementing the programs offered by the Government. However, at primary schools, the active involvement of all the teachers to run the program may have effectively led to have better results. Furthermore, the Government's focus should not be only on the increase the area covered by the ICDS program, but focus should be to increase the quality of food supplied, proper monitoring of the implementation and increase the allocation of funds. Appropriate measures may be taken by the authorities regarding this.

The results of the study will help in policy making in reducing the prevalence of undernutrition.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of board characteristics on foreign equity ownership (FEO) in the listed public limited companies of Bangladesh.

The study collected data from 418 annual reports of listed companies of Bangladesh for the years 2015, 2016 and 2017 to examine the effect of board characteristics on FEO. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) regression methods are used to test the hypotheses of the study.

The results show that board size has significant negative influence on FEO. Other board characteristics variables such as board independence and female directorship appear to have an insignificant influence on FEO. However, several firm characteristics variables such as return on assets, market-to-book ratio, firm size and firm age have a significant positive relationship with FEO. While presenting the regression results separately for manufacturing and non-manufacturing firms, the findings reveal a number of differences in the results between the two sectors.

The major limitation of the study is that it concentrates only on three years annual report data in analyzing the hypothesized relationships.

Policy makers, regulators and top management can get meaningful insights with respect to optimal board structure and firm characteristics to attract foreign investors as the results revealed significant effects of several board and firm characteristics variables on FEO.

The present study includes the presence of female directors on the board to represent board characteristics. No other study has examined the relationship between FEO and female directors.

Over a two‐month period, the editor of this review has searched worldwide for the most interesting and useful media articles on the topic of strategic management.

In addition to his own finds, the editor sorted through suggestions by a team of veteran top managers and senior academics.

The result is a surprisingly diverse set of media articles about strategy and leadership on such topics as promoting innovation, knowledge bridging, enabling change management, capitalism in failed states, building the no‐brand company, estimating the value of IT and the ignorance of crowds.

URL links and references have been provided for the articles so that managers can easily follow up this quick scan of the media by reading the articles in full.

Provides a snapshot of what managers are reading and a guide to trends and fresh thinking.

In an evolving business environment characterised by globalisation and a challenging competitive paradigm, it is imperative for strategic management processes to focus on the financial perspectives of value and risk in intellectual capital to create sustainability in long‐term value. This paper presents the key issues pertaining to the strategic management of value and risk in intellectual capital and presents some hypotheses for a strategic management framework based on identified underlying value‐drivers, which in turn helps to focus and address the issue of risk management more adequately. The pervasive value‐drivers in three intellectual capital‐intensive sectors in Australia are identified from an analysis of case studies, then specified and extrapolated to provide implications for the strategic management of value and risk in the knowledge‐based firms. The strategic management implications of these value‐drivers are discussed and explained.

The purpose of this study was to undertake a diagnostic investigation of the international health care logistical environment to determine if regulatory policies or industry procedures have hindered the implementation of just‐in‐time systems. The analysis was conducted in a systematic manner and compared the anticipated benefits with those validated in other industries from the implementation of just‐in‐time. The study also compared the health care industry environments of the USA, UK, and Germany with the manufacturing industry. The author focussed on answering: first, why has the health care industry not implemented just‐in‐time; second, is it feasible for a healthcare provider to implement a just‐in‐time logistical system; and third, what benefits will a health care provider achieve by implementing just‐in‐time. Concludes that controlling health care pricing requires reducing product cost or continues to place limits on product prices, quantities of services, or both. An alternative approach to controlling prices is to restructure the market for health services to encourage greater price competition among providers.

Social media facilitates the communication and the relationship between healthcare professionals and patients. However, limited research has examined the role of social media in a physicians' online return. This study, therefore, investigates physicians' online economic and social capital return in relation to physicians' use of social media and consumer engagement.

Using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression with fixed effects (FE) and panel data collected from Sina Weibo and Sina Health, this study analyzes the impact of physicians' social media use and consumer engagement on physicians' online return and the moderation effect of professional seniority.

The results reveal that physicians' use of social media and consumer sharing behavior positively affect physicians' online economic return. In contrast, consumer engagement positively impacts physicians' online social capital return. While professional seniority enhances the effect of physicians' social media use on online economic return, professional seniority only enhances the relationship between consumers' sharing behavior to the posts and physicians' online social capital return when professional seniority comes to consumer engagement.

This study reveals the different roles of social media use and consumer engagement in physicians' online return. The results also extend and examine the social media affordances theory in online healthcare communities and social media platforms.

We present results of the exchange interactions and Curie temperatures in some Cr-based chalcogenides and pnictides. The calculations are performed mostly for Zinc Blende (ZB) structure with the lattice parameter varying between 5.45 and 6.6 Å, appropriate for some typical II-VI and III-V semiconducting substrates. Electronic structure is calculated via the linear muffintin-orbitals method and disorder effects, when appropriate, are taken into account via the coherent potential approximation. Calculated exchange interactions are used to estimate the Curie temperature by employing the mean-field and the random phase approximations. For CrTe we compare the results of the ZB and Rock-Salt (RS) structures.

The purpose of this paper is to assist ocean container carriers in their service quality improvement strategies to ensure breakthrough performance in India.

A total of seven container carriers have been involved in this study. To explore the list of service criteria, reviews of transportation literature, customer satisfaction survey questionnaires of container carriers, SERVQUAL battery, telephonic interviews and focus groups were conducted. For data collection, a shipper satisfaction questionnaire was administered. After data collection, a mean score analysis using SPSS 15 was taken up to assess the present service performance levels of the select container carriers. Then a performance gap analysis was carried out using the gap analysis formula found in the benchmarking literature.

Out of the 48 service criteria which decide the service quality of ocean container carriers, Maersk is the top performer in respect of 23 criteria, both Hanjin and MSC are top in eight criteria each, Evergreen is top in five criteria, APL is top in four criteria and CMA CGM is top in two criteria. Hapag has not scored top in any of the criteria. The gap analysis shows that APL needs to improve 44 areas in which it has shown negative gaps, CMA CGM needs to improve 47 criteria, Evergreen 45 criteria, Hanjin 47 criteria, Hapag 48 criteria, Maersk 40 criteria and MSC 43 criteria to become excellent.

This paper has enabled container carriers to understand the list of criteria that decide their service quality in the Indian container carrier industry. It has also informed them of their present service performance levels, and their areas of strengths and weakness. This will help them in efficient resource allocation. Understanding the areas and sizes of negative gaps, they can take appropriate steps to close them and become excellent.

This is the first service quality improvement study undertaken in the Indian container carrier industry and it has opened up enormous scope for future research.

The electronic properties, exchange interactions, Curie temperatures and transport properties of random quaternary Heusler alloys (Ni, Cu)₂MnSn are studied by means of density-functional calculations over the entire range of dopant concentration. Results agree qualitatively as well as quantitatively with the available experimental data. The residual resistivity is found to obey the Nordheim rule, indicating weak-scattering regime. The temperature-dependent spin-disorder resistivity is found to be described well via the disordered model of local moments. Effect of pressure on the Curie temperature and the resistivity is also explored.