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This paper aims to investigate the impact of economic, social and political globalizations on the incidents of global terrorism.

The authors apply negative binomial regressions model because the variable is event count. The sample size covers 195 countries from 1990 to 2017.

There is strong evidence that the higher level of economic and social integrations internationally lead to a reduction in terrorist activities. However, the results relating to political globalization are inconsistent. Comparing the top 20 most affected countries with the full sample, the authors find a negative association between economic globalization and terrorism, whereas social and political globalization is found to be statistically insignificant. Finally, the evidence holds firmly pre-9/11 attacks on World Trade Centre.

This paper suffers through the lack of consensus on a unique and consistent definition of terrorism. The definition of terrorism varies across time and countries. Furthermore, there is a variation among the main databases of terrorism, which could potentially affect the reliability of findings.

This paper provides policymakers with a policy recommendation that the economic and social integration across countries should be encouraged, as it might decrease the number of terrorist events taking place worldwide. In addition, the benefits of economic development generated through global integration must be fairly distributed across societies as an effort to decrease motivation of disgruntles population to involve in terrorism.

This paper contributes empirically to the existing literature through investigating the impact of economic, social and political globalizations on the incidents of terrorism worldwide.

Disaster management information systems (DMISs) have been proposed in different parts of the world for effective response to a disaster. The purpose of this paper is to: compare design approaches of these DMISs; examine similarities in the design of databases and communication infrastructure; and draw conclusions. Based on the examination of the studies, future opportunities have been identified and discussed.

The studies in the available literature on the designs of automated DMISs have been reviewed in the presented paper to identify similarities in design premise, conceptual design and design considerations.

The examination of the available studies indicates that the research on DMIS has increased significantly in different countries of the world since 2004. Data of baseline information and available resources are required by most of the presented studies, as these data are necessary for effective response to a disaster. The communication infrastructures suggested include local area network, wide area network and satellite communication for better coordination between the responders and different relief agencies at different locations. The connectivity to these networks is possible through Ethernet, Wi-Fi, general packet radio service or satellite.

Although the research on DMIS has increased significantly over the last one decade, the studies are still few in numbers. Similarly, only few of the proposed systems have been developed and tested during a real disaster.

The presented review of available studies provides a holistic view of the proposed DMISs which could be useful to the disaster management authorities.

The paper provides valuable information on the differences in the proposed DMISs. This can help in identifying the gaps for future improvements for increased effectiveness of a DMIS. The future opportunities have also been identified in the presented paper and are discussed.

This paper aims to investigate the association of COVID-19 confirmed cases and deaths with mental health, unemployment and financial markets-related search terms for the USA, the UK, India and worldwide using Google Trends.

The authors use Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients to assess the relationship between relative search volumes (RSVs) and mental health, unemployment and financial markets-related search terms, with the total confirmed COVID-19 cases as well as deaths in the USA, UK, India and worldwide. The sample period starts from the day 100 cases were reported for the first time, which is 7 March 2020, 13 March 2020, 23 March 2020 and 28 January 2020 for the US, the UK, India and worldwide, respectively, and ends on 25 June 2020.

The results indicate a significant increase in anxiety, depression and stress leading to sleeping disorders or insomnia, further deteriorating mental health. The RSVs of employment are negatively significant, implying that people are hesitant to search for new jobs due to being susceptible to exposure, imposed lockdown and social distancing measures and changing employment patterns. The RSVs for financial terms exhibit the varying associations of COVID-19 cases and deaths with the stock market, loans, rent, etc.

This study has implications for the policymakers, health experts and the government. The state governments must provide proper medical facilities and holistic care to the affected population. It may be noted that the findings of this study only lead us to conclude about the relationship between COVID-19 cases and deaths and Google Trends searches, and do not as such indicate the effect on actual behaviour.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to investigate the relationship between the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the USA, UK and India and at the global level and RSVs for mental health-related, job-related and financial keywords.

This paper aims to test for volatility spillovers among Islamic stock markets with the exogenous impact of geopolitical risk (GPR) to check the risk transmission among Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Indonesia and Turkey. Researchers test for both the symmetric and asymmetric risk transmission.

For the symmetric response of volatility, the study uses simple generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic (GARCH) and for the asymmetric response of volatility with the exogenous impact of GPR, the exponential GARCH models have been adopted.

The results suggest spillover effects exist from Turkey to Saudi Arabia, Indonesia to Malaysia and Saudi Arabia and Malaysia to Indonesia. The findings of volatility spillover from GPR to sample countries suggest that only Malaysia and Indonesia experience volatility spillovers from GPR.

The present study is limited to the context of four countries and Islamic equities; the study contributes to the literature on volatility spillover, Islamic finance, GPR and asset pricing.

This study contributes to individual, institutional investors’ policymakers’ knowledge in determining security prices, trading plans, investment hedging and policy regulation.

The extant literature disregards the GPR index to examine the volatility spillover effects among Islamic stock markets, which allow researchers to justify the mechanism of risk transmission due to GPR across the Islamic stock market.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research of its type to look at volatility spillover and GPR transmission in Islamic stock markets.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the stock market performance of companies featured in the survey “Best Companies to Work For” as a proxy for corporate culture.

The authors employed the portfolio formation and event study methods from finance to examine the linkage between corporate culture and future stocks returns. The lists of India’s best place to work for by Great Place to Work® Institute and Business Today (BT), India’s leading business magazine, form the primary surrogate for a great corporate culture. The authors compared the stock market performance of the culture portfolio vis-à-vis market index, in addition to using Carhart’s (1997) four-factor model.

A portfolio of Indian firms that featured in the “Best Companies to Work For” by Great Place to Work© Institute and BT magazine provides a higher return than the market index Sensex both on an ordinary return and on a risk-adjusted basis. The four-factor αs of the value-weighted culture portfolios are significant, implying that these portfolios have provided abnormal returns during the sample period. Moreover, the findings suggest a positive drift in the abnormal returns after inclusion in the “Best Companies to Work For” list.

The results are largely in conformity with the prediction of the theory that states that corporate culture is an economic asset for a firm that increases its value.

From an investor’s point of view, the study indicates that investment in “Best Companies to Work For” is a better alternative than passive index investing.

This study fills the empirical void in the relationship between corporate culture and stock market performance in the Indian context.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of value-at-risk (VaR) in the cross-section of stock returns in the Indian stock market during the period 1999-2014.

The paper follows the methodology of Bali and Cakici (2004) to investigate the relationship between VaR and stock returns and employs Fama and French’s (1993) and Fama and Macbeth’s (1973) methods to find out the predictive power of VaR in time-series and cross-section settings. Further, it follows Fama and French (2008) to estimate separate cross-section regressions for small, medium and big stocks to verify the pervasiveness of the anomaly.

This study finds positive risk premium associated with VaR in the Indian stock market during 2001-2008, the period of short selling constraint for institutional investors. This premium is confined to small stocks and low institutional holdings. The positive premium can be attributed to short selling constraints.

The risk-return tradeoff can be utilized by investors and fund managers. As it is confined to small stocks, transaction costs may affect the profitability of the investment strategy.

The study contributes to the scanty empirical literature on the role of VaR in the cross-section of expected stock returns. Moreover, this is the first study that explores the relationship between VaR and stock returns in the asset pricing context for the Indian stock market.

This paper aims to present the results of testing of low-strength concrete specimens exposed to elevated temperatures. These data are limited in the existing literature and do not exist in Pakistan.

An experimental testing programme has been employed. Cylindrical specimens of 100 × 200 mm were used in the testing programme. These were heated at temperatures which were varied from 100°C to 900°C in increment of 100°C. Similar specimens were tested at ambient temperature as control specimens. The compressive and tensile properties of heat treated specimens were determined.

The colour of concrete started to change at 300°C and hairline cracks appeared at 400°C. Explosive spalling was observed in few specimens in the temperature range of 400°C-650°C which could be attributed to the pore pressure generated by steam. Significant loss of concrete compressive strength occurred on heating temperatures larger than 600°C, and the residual compressive strength was found to be 15 per cent at 900°C. Residual tensile strength of concrete became less than 10 per cent at 900°C. The loss of concrete stiffness reached 85 per cent at 600°C. Residual Poisson’s ratio of concrete increased at high temperatures and became nearly six times larger at 900°C as compared to that at ambient temperature.

The parameters of the study included heating temperature and effects of temperature on strength and stiffness properties of the concrete specimens.

Building fire incidents have increased in Pakistan. As a large number of reinforced concrete (RC) buildings exist in the country, the data related to elevated temperature properties of concrete are required. These data are not available in Pakistan presently. The study aims at providing this information for the design engineers to enable them to assess and increase fire resistance of RC structural members.

The presented study is unique in its nature in that there is no published contribution to date, to the best of authors’ knowledge, which has been carried out to assess the temperature-dependent mechanical properties of concrete in Pakistan.

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of experimental testing of steel rebars at elevated temperatures. Three types of bars available in the local market in Pakistan were used. These data are not available in Pakistan.

Three types of bars were used, which included cold-twisted ribbed (CTR), hot-rolled deformed (HRD) and thermo-mechanically treated (TMT) bars. The diameter of the bar of each type was 16 mm. The bars were heated in an electrical furnace at temperatures which were varied from 100°C to 900°C in increment of 100°C. Bars of each type were also tested at ambient temperature as control specimens. The change of strength, strain and modulus of elasticity of the bars at high temperatures were determined.

The mechanical properties of the bars were nearly unaffected by the temperatures up to 200°C. CTR bars did not show yield plateau and strain hardening both at ambient and high temperatures. The high temperature yield strength and elastic modulus for all the three types of bars were similar at all temperatures. The yield plateau of both the HRD and TMT bars disappeared at temperatures greater than 300°C. The ultimate strength at high temperature of the HRD and TMT bars was also similar. The behaviours of the HRD and TMT bars changed to brittle beyond 400°C as compared to their behaviours at ambient temperature. The CTR bars exhibited ductile characteristics at failure at all the exposure temperatures relative to their behaviour at ambient temperature.

The parameters of the paper included the rebar type and heating temperature and the effects of temperature on strength and stiffness properties of the steel bars.

Building fire incidents have increased in Pakistan. As reinforced concrete (RC) buildings exist in the country in significant numbers, the data related to elevated temperature properties of steel is required. These data are not available in Pakistan presently. The presented paper aims at providing this information for the design engineers to enable them to assess and increase fire resistance of RC structural members.

The presented paper is unique in its nature in that there is no published contribution to date, to the best of authors’ knowledge, which has been carried out to assess the temperature-dependent mechanical properties of steel reinforcing bars available in Pakistan.

This study aims to examine the potential influence of multiple directorships (MDs) on the firm value of listed firms in Jordan.

Using a sample of 1,067 firm-year observations of Jordanian listed companies from 2010 to 2020, this study applies a pooled ordinary least squares regression model to examine the above-stated relationship. This technique was supported by conducting a generalized method of moments estimation to address the possible occurrence of endogeneity concerns.

The results show a significant negative relationship between MDs and firm performance, thereby supporting the “Busyness Hypothesis”, which suggests that directors with MDs are expected to be over-committed, too busy and less vigilant. Thus, their ability to effectively monitor the company management on behalf of the shareholders is quite limited.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study in Jordan, and one of the very rare studies in the Middle Eastern and North African region, to examine the relationship between MDs and firm performance. This study provides important policy and practitioner implications in the field of corporate governance by highlighting the necessity of imposing stricter limits on the number of directorships allowed for board directors. Crucially, the empirical evidence implies that limited directorships ensure that directors are able to fulfil their board responsibilities appropriately, which is significantly associated with the firm value.