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This paper aims to examine the behavioral timing hypothesis in the context of UK rights issues by seeking to establish and investigate inter-relationships between directors’ trading around rights issues as a proxy for stock mis-valuation and post-issue stock price performance.

The cumulative average abnormal returns, the buy and hold abnormal returns, the standardized residual cross-sectional t-test and the generalized sign test techniques.

The directors do possess short-term timing ability as they can identify profitable trading situations by buying more often before stock outperformance and by selling more often before stock underperformance. In addition, directors trading prior to the rights offering is found to exert an influence on the long-run abnormal returns of the rights-issuing firm, which supports the story that mis-valuation and behavioral timing are empirical.

Other types of seasoned equity offerings rather than rights issues should be included.

The research provides a direct testing for the strong form of market efficiency hypothesis, which enables policymakers to take into account market reaction to directors’ trades and how it is affected by corporate events (e.g. rights issues) when addressing insider trading regulations.

This study extends available literature in the context of both developed and emerging equity markets to testing the behavioral timing hypothesis by testing the inter-relationships between directors’ trading around rights issues and post-issue short- and long-run performance. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study that examines these inter-relationships in the UK context.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate a benchmarking project carried out by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) as part of a structured benchmarking initiative. The project was based on the TRADE benchmarking methodology and this paper examines the tools, activities and outcomes that relate to each stage of the adopted methodology.

This study is based on case study methodology. Data were collected from various sources including analysis of project reports written by DEWA’s benchmarking team reporting on their activities during the project. Data were also collected from four project presentations given at different stages of the project. In addition, the research team held three meetings with the DEWA benchmarking team at different stages of the benchmarking project.

The results show the key challenges and successes faced during each stage of the benchmarking project. It indicates the actions taken to overcome the challenges and the role played by internal and external stakeholders in facilitating the success of the benchmarking project.

The study presents information that would guide organisations that wish to carry out a benchmarking project – and particularly those implementing benchmarking for the first time. The study provides a summary of the key lessons learnt by DEWA’s benchmarking team as a guide for other organisations.

Academic research has not adequately examined and analysed the stage-by-stage elements of a benchmarking project from the perspective of the implementing organisation. This study addresses this gap by detailing and analysing the experiences of a benchmarking project by tracking the stage-by-stage activities of the benchmarking team.

This paper aims to investigate the mechanisms for managing coordinated benchmarking projects and the outcomes achieved from such coordination. While there have been many independent benchmarking studies comparing the practices and performance of public sector organisations, there has been little research on initiatives that involve coordinating multiple benchmarking projects within public sector organisations or report on the practices implemented and results from benchmarking projects. This research will be of interest to centralised authorities wishing to encourage and assist multiple organisations in undertaking benchmarking projects.

The study adopts a case study methodology. Data were collected on the coordinating mechanisms and the experiences of the individual organisations over a one-year period.

The findings show successful results (financial and non-financial) across all 13 benchmarking projects, thus indicating the success of a coordinated approach to managing multiple projects. The study concluded by recommending a six-stage process for coordinating multiple benchmarking projects.

This research gives new insights into the application and benefits from benchmarking because of the open access the research team had to the “Dubai We Learn” initiative. To the authors’ knowledge the research was unique in being able to report accurately on the outcome of 13 benchmarking projects with all projects using the TRADE benchmarking methodology.

The purpose of this study is to dissect the transport infrastructure performance, public spending in transport infrastructure development and the manufacturing sector in determining the transport sector energy consumption.

An analysis of transport energy consumption with the transport infrastructure performance, public spending in transport infrastructure and manufacturing sector output in India using annual data for the period 1987–2019. The study used the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds test approach along with FMOLS, DOLS and canonical cointegration regression (CCR) methods.

The results of the ARDL bounds test provide evidence for the long- and short-run relationships among study variables. It evidenced that transport infrastructure performance reduces transport energy consumption by using FMOLS, DOLS and CCR methods. Furthermore, the inference of the positive impact of value added in the manufacturing sector on transport energy consumption validates the higher energy demand of the manufacturing sector from a mobility perspective.

The estimated finding of this study is expected to be contributing to policy-making discussions on transport infrastructure and manufacturing sector development in an emerging economy like India with insights on energy consumption.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that integrates the impact of manufacturing sector output on transport sector energy consumption along with transport infrastructure performance and public investment in the transport infrastructure.

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/eb042834. When citing the article, please cite: Hoda Z. Shams, Mahmoud Y. Ahmed, Magdy F. Abbas, (1991), “Developments in printing ink formulations: A new series of high quality printing inks for metals and metal foils”, Pigment & Resin Technology, Vol. 20 Iss: 5, pp. 4 - 8.

The purpose of this study is to improve the tribological characteristics of cotton-biolubricant by adding nanoparticles at extreme pressure (EP) conditions in comparison with commercial lubricant SAE-40.

This research involved the synthesis of cotton-biolubricant by transesterification process and then the addition of nanoparticles in it to improve anti wear (AW)/EP tribological behavior. SAE-40 was studied as a reference commercial lubricant. AW/EP characteristics of all samples were estimated by the four-ball tribo-tester according to the American Society for Testing and Materials D2783 standard.

The addition of 1-Wt.% TiO₂ and Al₂O₃ with oleic acid surfactant in cotton-biolubricant decreased wear scar diameter effectively and enhanced the lubricity, load-wear-index, weld-load and flash-temperature-parameters. This investigation revealed that cotton-biolubricant with TiO₂ nano-particle additive is more effective and will help in developing new efficient biolubricant to replace petroleum-based lubricants.

Cotton biolubricant with TiO₂ nano-particles appeared as an optimistic solution for the global bio-lubricant market.

No one has not studied the cotton biolubricant with nanoparticles for internal combustion engine applications at high temperature and EP conditions.

This study determines the relationship between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their support providers during three phases: pre-conflict environment, during conflict environment, and the post-conflict (uncertain) environment with the reference to institutional theory in the northwest region of Pakistan where there is ongoing unrest between the authorities and the insurgents.

Using a qualitative approach, a total of 23 semi-structured interviews were conducted, 19 with the owner-managers of small manufacturing firms and 4 from small business support providers in the region.

The authors theorise the changing role of support agencies as differing institutional gaps, while conflict is destructive for SMEs and support agencies; paradoxically the crisis results in stronger relationships between the support providers and SMEs which was weaker in the pre-conflict environment. Such stronger relationship enhanced the cognitive pillar of institutional theory where entrepreneurship is supported by various groups including government agencies and SMEs to alleviate unemployment in the region which is one of the potential reasons of terrorism in the country.

The study may have value for policymakers who need to know more about how small businesses and support providers develop a support network in difficult regions and give a comprehensive framework to other conflictual regions who face similar circumstances.

This research contributes to the previous literature in several ways. First, the study reveals the impact of conflict environment on small businesses and support providers where a little research has been undertaken. Second, the study shows the support mechanism in three different intervals pre-conflict, during the conflict and post-conflict and how the Talibanization in the region has a positive impact by strengthening the support structure among small businesses and support providers. Finally, the study contributes to the growing body of literature on entrepreneurship in conflict environments.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between ethnic diversity, social exclusion and institutional quality of Pakistan. Pakistan is enlisted among those countries that are suffering from bad institutional quality, which may be due to the less economic growth along with multifarious ethnic problems, higher misery and social exclusion. This study is an attempt of how ethnic diversity and social exclusion are encompassed to affect the institutional quality.

This study covers time series data from 1970 to 2015 and uses autoregressive distributed lags modeling approach to explore the underlying nexus among variables.

The finding of this study reveals that ethnic diversity and social exclusion are the enormous obstacles and deteriorate the institutional quality of Pakistan. In case of Pakistan, ethnic diversity is playing a fundamental role in the deterioration of institutional quality. Ethnic diversity has adverse effect on institutional quality which leads to hamper the economic prosperity; therefore, it has to be managed in efficient way by establishing a dense social network needed for growth promotion. This study also shows that socially excluded people are more involved in breaking the institutional rules (formal and informal) because they are not treated equal in society in all of aspects.

This study suggests that governments should play a vital role in creating secure and peaceful society through strong institutional quality and shaping the economic life of a country in a variety of ways such as to promote society toward more cohesiveness.

This study fills a significant gap in the literature as there is limited research on ethnic diversity and social exclusion in relation with institutional quality of Pakistan.

This paper aims to investigate the influence of company-specific attributes on capital structure decisions of Islamic banks (IBs) in Gulf Cooperation council (GCC) countries during the period 2009-2011.

To improve the econometric estimates’ efficiency, the paper uses the generalized least square (GLS) regression model to increase the levels of freedom and reduce collinearity.

The empirical results indicate that bank size, liquidity and corporate age are positively associated with the leverage ratio of GCC IBs, supporting the trade-off theory. Inconsistent with theoretical predictions, it is found that the profitability, tangibility and growth have positive insignificant relationship with the level of leverage, suggesting these determinants are not important in capital structure decisions. Furthermore, gross domestic product (GDP) and non-debt tax shield have negative effects on the leverage ratio and significant for GDP.

Overall, the evidence provided in the study highlights the significance of company-specific characteristics in determining and affecting the capital structure decisions of IBs in GCC countries. It is useful to use these variables in the analysis of IBs’ capital structure in the GCC region before the financial crisis in 2007. One limitation for this study is that the sample is restricted to only the Islamic banking sector. Future research could include all Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) operating within the Gulf region. Second, the study only concentrates on GCC countries to the neglect of other countries. Finally, the study controls for the country level only and does not account for firm factors. Future research could consider all these limitations. Another possible avenue is by examining other variables, such as corporate governance mechanisms.

Despite that most previous studies investigated the determinants of the capital structure of financial conventional industries, research on Islamic banking is almost non-existent. Moreover, the extant literature on Islamic finance has been theoretically explored, and the empirical research regarding capital structure is still in the infancy stage. Accordingly, it is evident that based on the Islamic trade-off perspective, theoretical hypotheses and empirical findings provide a novel addition to the capital structure theory for IFIs.