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The transformation of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from a regional health crisis in a Chinese city to a global pandemic has caused severe damage not only to the natural and economic lives of human beings but also to the financial markets. The rapidly pervading and daunting consequences of COVID-19 spread have plummeted the stock markets to their lowest levels in many decades especially in South Asia. This concern motivates us to investigate the stock markets’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic in four South Asian countries: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. This study aims to investigate the causal impact of the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases on stock market returns using panel data of the countries stated above.

This study collects and analyzes the daily data on COVID-19 spread and stock market return over the period May 28, 2020 to October 01, 2020. Using Dumitrescu and Hurlin panel Granger non-causality test, the empirical results demonstrate that the COVID-19 spread measured through its daily confirmed cases in a country significantly induces stock market return. This paper cross-validates the results using the pairwise Granger causality test.

The empirical results suggest unidirectional causality from COVID-19 to stock market returns, indicating that the spread of COVID-19 has a dominant short-term influence on the stock movements. To the best of the knowledge, this study provides the first empirical insights into the impact of COVID-19 on the stock markets of selected South Asian countries taking the cross-sectional dependence into account. The results are also in line with the findings of other existing literature on COVID-19. Moreover, the results are robust across the two tests used in this study.

The findings are equally insightful to the fund managers and investors in South Asian countries. Taking into account the possible impact of COVID-19 on stock markets’ returns, investors can design their optimal portfolios more effectively. This study has another important implication in the sense that the impact of COVID-19 on the stock markets of South Asian countries may have spillover effects on other developing or even developed countries.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the sources and categories of well-being from the transformative service research (TSR) domain. The paper also aims to offer a unified framework of sources and categories of well-being and several future research agenda.

A systematic literature review method is applied to address the study aims. A three-phase approach has been applied, which produced a total of 70 peer-reviewed empirical studies for the review.

The analysis has identified five major sources and their underlying sub-sources of well-being. The major sources are organization-, individual-, collective-, service system-, and situation-driven sources. The findings further identified two major categories or well-being showing the capacity and functioning, and subjective appraisals of life conditions. The identified sources and categories of well-being develop a unified framework showing a simplistic path or relations between the sources and the categories.

The paper offers several research agenda explaining what source-related issues can be addressed for enhancing well-being for various entities. It also adds a proposed schema and research questions for examining the possible relations and influences between the sources of well-being and social well-being of individuals.

Practitioners can get important insights about the matters over which they have little or no control such as the activities, motives and processes that take place in individuals' and collectives' spheres and mechanisms of supports in social networks.

The paper is the first to offer a systematic review on the empirical studies of the TSR domain identifying a comprehensive list of sources and categories of well-being and a resulting unified framework and research agenda.

Human resources (HR) management has encountered unforeseen obstacles and issues in recruiting, retaining, training and developing workforces under the “new normal” due to pandemic circumstances followed by the Russo–Ukrainian War and global economic turmoil. As the world is now well-equipped with technological advancements and internet-based connectivity, many pandemic disruptions have been avoided through rapid adaptation of technological systems. Despite the constructive outcomes of this contemporary approach to learning and development (L&D), this study explores the further depths of massive open online courses (MOOC) platform adoption in human resource development initiatives during pandemic times.

A qualitative research approach was adopted to understand the employee and HR perspective on the changes in L&D approaches in organizations. To gather the primary data, respondents were divided into two clusters; different sets of questionnaires were developed for interview sessions.

Results suggest that employee L&D was much more improvised with distance or online learning, including organizational e-learning systems and MOOC platforms. To accomplish their HR development goals, organizations went through significant transformations during the Coronavirus pandemic; organizational attempts to initiate online training and MOOC-based learning fostered positive results in employee capacity development, process improvement, employee engagement and motivation.

This research will assist organizations in developing interactive training methods as an effective replacement for traditional training. Additionally, it will assist readers, practitioners and HR specialists in understanding how MOOCs are changing the L&D ecosystem.

In 2020, the education system was preliminary halted by the COVID-19 crisis and went through radical improvisation, and online-based distance learning was the only plausible initiative to continue educational activities ensuring health guidelines properly. However, in reality, such desperate measure in case of a lower-middle-income developing nation lacking proper structural capabilities raised some issues and concerns for both pupils and mentors, and this study aims to explore the practice of online-based distance learning in private universities of Bangladesh and the challenges associated with it.

This exploratory research is qualitative in nature. A total number of 89 undergraduate level university students from different private universities were divided into two main clusters and interviewed in depth.

The findings of this paper revealed that common developing country syndromes like improper technological infrastructure development, limitation to devices or internet accessibility and financial hindrances can disrupt the harmony of the online learning experience. Also, the lack of tech literacy has created a huge tension and psychological inertia among both the teachers and the students.

The coronavirus pandemic event, with its dreadful influence, is creating immense mental pressures for students to cope well with the online learning system. Comprehending the underlying challenges affiliated with online-based distance learning and enabling faculties or respected personnel with training and development programs to handle impediments better way, this learning initiative can ensure the best outcomes.

The significance of this study lies in comprehending the feasibility of online-based education regarding lower-middle-income developing nation context and the realism of such learning process's acceptability considering its actual effectiveness.

The extreme measures that have been taken by governments across the globe to minimize the spread of COVID-19 have had significant impacts on almost all the public sectors, especially on the economy and education. This study aims to address the approaches and prospective of online-based training and e-learning for employee learning and development during this COVID-19 crisis.

With an emphasis on the qualitative approach and considering the complex COVID-19 emergency, required data were collected from in-depth interviews to interpret the experiences of the respondents.

The findings suggested that the digital learning ecosystem offered flexibility of time, place and pace, which provided essential convenience during the COVID-19 crisis. From the human resource (HR) perspective, the e-learning culture has enabled the organizations to quickly adopt the new normal, secure sustainable continuity of organizational development and ensure decent work and growth within and across organizations. The adoption of e-learning and flexible working conditions following the setback has enabled the organizations to quickly cope up with the new normal, causing a significant paradigm shift in the organizational culture and corporate sector of Bangladesh.

The study will assist the HR of any organization to contemplate e-learning systems as effective alternative training methods. Also, the study will be suggestive to traverse new dimensions and skillsets for the pedagogues.

This study offers new evidential scenarios regarding the emergence of effective e-learning initiatives and online-based learning programs for developing the workforce to be efficient and productive even in distressful and inconvenient COVID-19 situations.

Roots of global Terrorism are in ‘failed’ states carved out of multiracial empires after World Wars I and II in name of ‘national self‐determination’. Both sides in the Cold War competed to exploit the process of disintegration with armed and covert interventions. In effect, they were colluding at the expense of the ‘liberated’ peoples. The ‘Vietnam Trauma’ prevented effective action against the resulting terrorist buildup and blowback until 9/11. As those vultures come home to roost, the war broadens to en vision overdue but coercive reforms to the postwar system of nation states, first in the Middle East. Mirages of Vietnam blur the vision; can the sole Superpower finish the job before fiscal and/or imperial overstretch implode it?

This study aims to investigate the influence of religiosity (intrinsic and extrinsic) and halal literacy on the intention of Muslim consumers to purchase halal branded food products in India. An extended version of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) was used as a framework. Apart from religiosity and halal literacy, the influence of attitude, social norms and perceived behavioural control of halal on buying intention were also tested.

The study uses a survey design. The data were collected from 350 individual respondents, using a closed-ended, structured questionnaire. The quality of the measurement model has been assessed through reliability testing, factor loading, average variance extracted and Fornell-Larcker criterion. The test of hypotheses was conducted by performing the partial least square structural equation modelling.

The result of hypotheses testing shows that both intrinsic and extrinsic types of religiosities did not have a direct influence on buying intention. However, religiosity (extrinsic and intrinsic) and halal literacy have significant relationships with most of the antecedents of the intention of the TPB. In addition, both kinds of religiosities (extrinsic and intrinsic) and halal literacy had a significant indirect effect (through TPB antecedents) on buying intention.

Muslim population in India is one of the largest in the world, yet there is a lack of popular halal branded food products in the market. Nevertheless, few researchers have attempted to study the consumer behaviour of the Muslim population for halal products in India. A large amount of research work on halal food behaviour is from countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia, where the Muslim population is in the majority and halal brands are already popular. Further, this paper studies the impact of dimensions of religiosity, which has been overlooked by researchers studying the halal food purchasing behaviour. The study also explores the impact of halal literacy, an understudied construct in halal marketing literature. The present study is amongst the earliest empirical research based on Muslim consumers in India on the topic of halal branded food products.

This paper aims to evaluate Nigerian contractors’ perceptions regarding the effects of positive and negative cash flow during construction projects, with a view to establishing effective strategies for cash flow management.

A desktop-based literature review is used to develop a cross-sectional questionnaire survey which uses Likert items to elicit responses from construction professionals on: the reasons for cash flow problems; the impacts of negative and positive cash flow; and the potential solutions for improving cash flow on construction projects.

The study finds that delay in payments, difficulty in obtaining financial aid and inadequate budgetary control are the causes of cash flow problems during construction projects. Cumulatively, these issues result in project delays, reduced profit margins and in the worst scenarios, abandoned projects.

There has been limited research into the effects of positive and negative cash flows on construction projects in Nigeria and indeed, the wider geographical location of West Africa. This study addresses this observed dearth and consequently advances methods and solutions to deal with the problem of poor cash flow management in the Nigerian construction industry.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how chief executive officer (CEO) characteristics, including age, education, nationality and particularly gender, influence firm performance in a developing Southeast Asian Country (Indonesia).

The study uses balanced firm-level panel data for 203 nonfinancial companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2010 to 2020. Return on assets, return on equity and Tobin’s Q were used to measure firm performance. The data were analyzed using panel data regression analysis, including a fixed effects model with clustered standard errors.

The results indicate that female CEOs, education and nationality enhance firm performance, while CEO age can either improve or reduce firm performance. Numerous robustness checks were performed; the results were consistent with those in the main analysis.

Individual characteristics should be considered when appointing CEOs. Some CEO characteristics enhance firm performance. Female CEOs bring new perspectives, while older CEOs’ longer experience adds a competitive advantage. More educated CEOs have a better ability to deal with challenging intellectual activities, and CEOs from foreign countries better understand international market regulations. However, some characteristics may reduce firm performance, for example, older CEOs are more conservative and unable to adapt to changing business environments.

This study contributes to corporate governance studies by synthesizing CEO characteristics and investigating their relationship with firm performance. Moreover, it emphasizes that developing countries such as Indonesia have different economic, legal, social and cultural environments than developed countries, especially Western countries.