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This paper aims to analyze the relationship between bank institutional setting and risk-taking by exploring whether board education and turnover are drivers of the risk propensity of cooperative banks compared to joint-stock banks.

Based on a comprehensive data set of Italian banks over the 2011-2017 period, this paper examines whether these board characteristics affect the risk propensity of cooperative and joint-stock banks. Bank risk is measured by the Z-index, profit volatility and the ratio of non-performing loans to total gross loans.

The findings show that cooperatives take less risk than joint-stock banks and have lower board turnover and education. Furthermore, this study finds that while board education mediates the relationship between the cooperative model and bank risk-taking, there is no evidence for board turnover. Thus, the lower educational level of cooperative directors contributes to explaining the lower risk-taking of cooperative banks.

The findings have several implications. In terms of the more general policy debate, the results point to the need to strengthen the governance model for both joint-stock and cooperative banks while supporting the view that a more ad hoc perspective on the best models and practices for each type of institutional setting would be preferable. In particular, the study reveals how board education’s effects on bank risk-taking should be carefully monitored.

Through a mediation framework, this study provides empirical evidence on the relationship between bank institutional setting (by distinguishing between cooperative and joint-stock banks) and risk-taking behavior by exploring the underlying mechanisms at the board level, which is novel in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the discretionary use of loan loss provisions in the Chinese banking sector during the global financial crisis. The objective of this paper is twofold: to add new evidence to the scant literature dealing with a peculiar banking sector, such as the Chinese one, and to shed more light on banks’ provisioning behaviour during stressed financial markets conditions.

Using bank-level balance sheet and financial statements data, the authors test for income smoothing and capital management hypotheses, and detect differences in provisioning decisions of listed banks and unlisted financial intermediaries during turbulent financial markets conditions.

The authors find support for the income smoothing hypothesis, but not for the capital management one. Chinese listed banks appear to be less risky and less involved in income smoothing to shift their risk, when compared to unlisted credit institutions.

The results obtained from this paper help to understand the functioning of bank provisioning regime in the Chinese banking system and how provisioning mechanisms can address the issues associated with the pro-cyclicality of bank capital requirements.

Though referred to a particular banking sector, such as the Chinese one, the results of this paper can provide a tremendous incentive to those national and international authorities that are bound to promote forward-looking provisioning practices. These practices would allow banks to build a buffer of reserves to face the downward pressure on earnings and capital associated with periods of worsening credit quality.

Despite the increasing evidence on the effects of the economic crisis and austerity policies on the health of the population, we lack knowledge of how the young population is being affected. High unemployment rates, labour instability, high housing costs and cuts in public policies have placed the young in a vulnerable situation. We explore changes (2006–2017) in the both physical and mental health of young people in Spain using a selection of health indicators. By doing so we draw the reader’s attention to three elements with a close relationship to neoliberalism: the prominence of social determinants of health, the importance of inequalities and the accumulation of multiple sources of disadvantage in certain groups and individuals which ultimately condition the course of their lives; and the use of medicalization as a common and legitimised response to poor mental health.

This study investigates the relationship between Total Quality Management (TQM) and internationalization in small family firms, focusing on the role that the dimensions of TQM may have as strategic resources to implement successful internationalization strategies.

Building on the Resource-Based View (RBV), the study is based on a single case study, and data were gathered through in-depth interviews with the family owner-manager.

Findings show that small family businesses that aim to operate in international markets have to invest constant attention toward TQM by developing strategies able to achieve excellence. More in detail, for small and medium family firms, TQM represents a driver to internationalize. Therefore, family-owned managers sustain that internationalization success depends on the increasing attention exhibited toward the following dimensions of quality, specifically on three main pillars: relationships, professionalization and long-term vision, which appear to be strategic resources in international markets. An interpretive model is proposed with a set of propositions.

Scholarly implications are threefold. First, findings contribute to the RBV theory by introducing the long-term vision as a strategic resource able to activate a loop between TQM and internationalization success. Second, results contribute to TQM literature, highlighting that it represents a driver to internationalize, and following a long-term perspective, its enhancement is stimulated by internationalization. Third, findings contribute to family business studies, underlining the relevance done of owners on professionalization as a strategic resource to ensure excellence and obtain success in overseas markets. The main drawback refers to the fact that results stemmed from one single case study. Further studies could deepen the analysis on multiple cases.

The proposed case study represents a best practice and can stimulate other entrepreneurs and consultants to invest in TQM to thrive internationalization strategies.

The current study, elucidating that TQM is the driver to stimulate family business internationalization, proposes an interpretive model to study TQM and internationalization in small and medium family firms.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a support system to the selection of enrichment activities in educational environment called RunayaySoft, where Runayay comes from the word Quechua that means develop and Soft as it is an informatics tool that supports the educational institutions and their students, in the selection of activities that allow foster some of their skills based on their interests, learning styles, aptitudes, multiple intelligences, preferences and so on. Moreover, it suggests institutions about the activities that they should make in their building considering student´s characteristics and the agreements that they have.

It does a diagnostic for identifying which characteristics are going to be considered to students and institutions. Then, it generates adaptive profiles with the aim of generating suggestions of enrichment activities that allow to boost some of their skills. For the students were considered their preferences, learning style, aptitude, multiple intelligences and interests. In the case of institutions were the agreements, resources and activities that they develop. Based on this information, it defines the relations for the generation of suggestions of activities toward students, where it does the prioritization of which activities should be considered.

For validating the system, it was done as a functional prototype that generates suggestions to students, as well as educative institutions, through a satisfaction test student assess if they agree or disagree with the suggestions given. With that assessment, it is validated the relationship between student’s characteristics, activity and institution are related for generating activities suggestions.

RunayaySoft generates adaptive profiles for the students, activity and institution. Each profile has information that allows adapt an advice toward students and institutions.

RunayaySoft considers student’s characteristics, activities and educational institutions for generating suggestions for enrichment activities that allow to boost some of their skills. Many times, when activities are generated in educative institutions, they are not considered a learner’s needs and characteristics. For that reason, the system helps institutions to identify activities that should be done in their facilities or with those institutions which they have agreements when the institutions that students come from do not have the required resources.

RunayaySoft suggests enrichment activities to students as well as educative institutions. For students, it suggests disciplinary areas where they can boost their skills; for each disciplinary area are recommended activities based on their preferences. Once students select the disciplinary area and activities, the system suggests educative institutions activities that they can do. If the institutions do not have the necessary facilities, the system shows with which other institutions they can set agreements. Moreover, it supports educative institutions to identify enrichment clusters, where it clusters students based on similar interest, allowing institutions to identify the activities that they should focus on.

Faced with the growing need to find new viable water supply models for urban areas, this article studies and maps the strategies and identifies the key criteria of sustainable development present in pioneering water supply systems in the medieval period. The main aim is to determine which of its innovative principles could be applied in present-day cities.

From a methodological perspective, two types of cases were established, such as water supply models for human consumption and pre-industrial hydraulic systems, all of which are located in Italy. For the first group, the cases of Venice and Siena were analysed, while for the second, in the context of the cities along the Aemilian Way, the case of Bologna was selected.

Five key criteria resulted from the analysis of the cases: exploitation, self-sufficiency, maintenance, rationalisation and reuse. The said concepts were defined and contextualised within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Middle Ages were a historic moment in technological reinvention, before the development of modern systems of sanitation. With very limited resources, these traditional systems focused on rational use and deep cultural and geographical knowledge. This is why its recognition is of great importance today, in a time full of instabilities, with a view to the work that needs to be done for the development of more sustainable communities.

The Register of Current Research in the field of Physical Distribution Management has been compiled from the response to a request for such information made to Universities in 23 countries throughout the world. The last register was published in 1972 in this journal.