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In recent times, mobile banking has become the best alternative for transactions associated with payments like bills, fees, and peer-to-peer payments. Therefore, the pace of adoption is increasing day after other. However, the numbers of customers are not equal to the expectations as there are several challenges and threats hindering in the way of excellence and growth of mobile banking. Therefore, this chapter has been written purposively to address all the elements that are associated with the use of mobile banking with special emphasis on Pakistan and other developing sides of Asia. In fact, concern towards Asian sides is mandatory as the continent has the massive charm to attract users towards the use of mobile banking, but there is a need for proper policy and concern from stakeholders in order to give a push to the technology, which is fruitful for society, environment, as well as economy. The study includes an in-depth discussion on factors that need attention to make the study implicative and thorough for conducting further research in the field of Fin-Tech and mobile banking.

Purpose: Investors and portfolio managers can earn profitably when they correctly predict when stock prices will go up or down. For this reason, it is crucial to know the effect levels of the factors that affect stock prices. In addition to macroeconomic factors, the psychological behavior of investors also affects stock prices. Therefore, the study aims to reveal the different sensitivity levels of the stock index against macroeconomic and psychological factors.

Design/Methodology/Approach: In this study, dollar rate (USD), euro rate (EURO), time deposit interest rate (IR), gold price (GOLD), industrial production index (IPI), and consumer price index (CPI) (inflation (INF)) were used as macroeconomic factors, while Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) and VIX Fear Index (VIX) were used as psychological factors. In addition, the BIST-100 index, which is listed in Borsa Istanbul, was used as the stock index. The sensitivity of the stock index to macroeconomic and psychological factors was investigated using the Multivariate Adaptive Regression Spline (MARS) method using data from January 2012 to October 2020.

Findings: In the analyses performed using the MARS method, the coefficients of INF, USD, EURO, IR, CCI, and VIX Index were found to be statistically significant and effective on the stock index. Among these variables, INF has the highest effect on stocks. It is followed by USD, IR, EURO, CCI, and VIX. GOLD and IPI variables did not show statistical significance in the model. The most important difference of the MARS model from other regressions is that each factor’s effect on the stock index is analyzed by separating it according to the value of the factor. According to the results obtained from the MARS model: (1) it has been determined that USD, EURO, IR, and CPI have both positive and negative effects on the stock market index and (2) CCI and VIX have been found to have negative effects on stocks. These results provide essential information about how investors who plan to invest in the stock index should take into consideration different macroeconomic and psychological values.

Originality/value: This study contributes to the literature as it is one of the first studies to examine the effects of factors affecting the stock index by decomposing it according to the values it takes. Also, this study provides additional information by listing the factors affecting the stock index in order of importance. These results will help investors, portfolio managers, company executives, and policy-makers understand the stock markets.

In the current highly competitive market, most organizations are moving away from reactive and compliance-based to proactive environmental management. This proactive approach to environmental management calls for taking a strategic approach to adoption of green practices beyond an organization’s internal borders. In this respect, incorporating green practices into a firm’s supply chain has attracted interest of operations management scholar and practitioners. The influence of external pressures on the adoption of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices has been established in the literature. This research posits that the adoption of GSCM practices is also driven by a firm’s internal strategic factors including its key resources and competitive strategy. It also suggests that these direct effects are further mediated by the green strategies (GSs) adopted in companies. Theoretically, these relationships are supported by combining the institutional theory with the natural resource-based view. A structural equation modeling is applied to formulate and analyze the relationships and the mediating effect using a survey data collected from 139 ISO14001-certified manufacturers in Malaysia. The results verified the mediating effect of GS adoption on the relationship between internal and external strategic factors, and GSCM practices. This research has made an original contribution to knowledge by bridging the fields of strategic environmental management and GSCM.

The dynamic and evolving character of the fashion market, affected by globalisation and technology development, has resulted in complex supply chains. In order to keep costs down, fashion companies have relocated their production facilities to developing countries. At the same time, easing trade restrictions and reducing tariffs have encouraged fashion companies to offer their products all around the world. Accordingly, fashion supply chains have become geographically dispersed, with an increasing number of members, and decreasing traceability and visibility of the chains. As a consequence of that, they face uncertainties and some risks, from stock-outs, late deliveries, over-stocks, to counterfeits etc. This chapter sheds light on counterfeiting as the making of a product that so closely imitates the appearance of the product of another as to mislead consumers that the product is an original. Counterfeiting presents the biggest threat to the fashion industry due to its growing popularity among consumers who were not aware of buying fakes or knowingly bought fake fashion items. This chapter aims to examine the pros and cons of purchasing counterfeit fashion products (CFPs) by Gen Y and Z consumers, as they are more likely to purchase them. The results of the study on a sample of young Croatian consumers show that they prefer CFPs due to functional benefits of price and accessibility, and overestimated originals. The main reasons for young consumers not purchasing counterfeits are the perception of having poor quality relative compared to authentic ones as well as the ethical and legal dilemmas involved.

This book chapter aimed to examine the relationships between green supply chain practices and environmental performance in Malaysian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The practices of green supply chain in achieving environmental performance have been one priority concerns in Malaysia. However, green supply chain practices adoption remains emergence.

This manuscript adopted the multiple regression analysis in investigating the green supply chain (GSC) practices and environmental performance's variables. The self-administered surveys were randomly disseminated to Malaysian SMEs and 59 responses were returned. The result theoretically ascertained the positive relationship between GSC practices and environmental performance measures.

The findings are in aligned with the Resource-Based View (RBV) theory that conceptualized the GSC practices and strategies to sustain the environmental performance within the SMEs. In a nutshell, these findings would serve as the research implications and recommendations to the scholars, industrial practitioners, and policymakers who are interested in these GSC practices and environmental performance. This would further serve as a guideline for companies that tend to implement these GSC practices for improving its environmental performance.

The research revealed that ‘eco-design and packaging’ and ‘reverse logistics’ are significant to environmental performance, but both ‘green procurement’ and ‘investment recovery’ are not significant to environmental performance. The literature gaps exhibited for this manuscript; hence, future studies should be carried out on supply chain practices and environmental performance since there is no prescriptive method in sustaining environmental performance that matches all conditions in Malaysian SMEs.

I discuss the case of Hassan Almrei, one of the five Arab men detained as suspects who have the potential to engage in terrorism. Hassan Almrei's detention arises out of a section of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act of Canada that authorizes security certificates. A security certificate permits the detention and expulsion of non-citizens who are considered to be a threat to national security. Detainees have no opportunity to be heard before a certificate is issued and a designated judge of the Federal Court reviews most of the government's case against the detainee in a secret hearing at which neither the detainee nor his counsel is present. The detainee receives only a summary of the evidence against him. I discuss this legal situation as a state of exception that is part of a legal structure in which non-citizens have fewer rights than do citizens. Two conceptual tools shape my understanding of security certificates and their use in the “war on terror”: race thinking and the state of exception. The five detainees are more than simply victims of racial profiling. Their Arab origins, and the life history that mostly Arab Muslim men have had, operate to mark them as individuals likely to commit terrorist acts, people whose propensity for violence is indicated by their origins. When race thinking, the belief in the division of humanity into those prone to violence and those who are not according to racial descent, is accompanied by the idea that there must be two different, hierarchical legal regimes for each, and when we begin to grow accustomed to places without law and to people to whom the rule of law does not apply, we enter the terrifying world of the colonies and the concentration camp. This article examines how a space where law is suspended operates in the “war on terror” and it attends to the work that ideas about race do in the environment of the exception.

This chapter first describes the essential aspects of a currently changing world, which is characterised by digitalisation, globalisation and politically unstable situations. Based on this transformation context, key concepts such as leadership, innovation, innovation leadership and leadership competences are introduced, along with a new definition and framework for innovation leadership. The chapter discusses the distinction between innovation leadership and innovation management, and the connecting lines between these two concepts. The innovation leadership framework is described and related to the individual contributions of the authors in the book. The chapter frames these contributions along the dimensions of self-leadership, team leadership, organisational leadership and ecosystem leadership.

Purpose – The aim of this chapter is to theorize and describe the main characteristics of the social construction of the policy of electro-amplified popular music (EAPM) in the French context.

Design/methodology/approach – To explain the significance and the institutionalization of EAPM through the conflict and mediation between two modes of legitimation of the rebellion and recognition of identity: deliberative rationality and verbalization of protest, on the one hand, and “musicalization” of revolt and globalization of the rebellious feeling attitude, on the other hand.

Findings – The meaning of the so-called “musicalization of revolt” is defined. This phenomenon emerged, in France, at the end of 1960s, after a long and traditional period of “politization” and rationalization of protest. The main sociological and economic dimensions of this new historical process are designated: a special standardization of the emotional expression and a transcultural and global matrix of rebellion. Then, the public policy of EAPM is examined in depth. The paradox of the French voluntarism (the regulation of EAPM practices) is accentuated. What to do with the liberal origin of these styles and the institutional policy that began in 1982? Why and for what reasons has this public policy been still going on? What are the advantages of the public support from musicians’ as well as local and national authorities’ point of view? What are the topics of EAPM public policy (support for social creation, status of drugs, and ritualization of violence)?

Originality/value of chapter – This academic text offers some key concepts explaining the normalization of the emerging and anarchistic musical cultures.