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Refers to previous research on the advantages of international portfolio diversification, gives an overview of the stock markets in Bahrein, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia; and assesses their sutiability for the purpose, especially as a hedge against oil price risk. Compares their 1993‐1998 monthly index returns and standard deviations with the USA, shows low or negative correlations between them and illustrates the potential this offers for risk reduction. Uses the Markowitz mean‐variance paradigm to estimate the effecient frontiers. Finds the results consistent with evidence from other emerging markets and points out that the stability of Gulf exchange rates against the US dollar also removes currency risk.

CURRENTLY operating on some of the longest sectors of any of the world's carriers, Cathay Pacific Airways pioneered a daily London — Hong Kong service in 1980 which it operated with a stop at Bahrein. A further advance was made in July, 1983 when the airline added a weekly non‐stop service from London. In May, 1984 the airline began flying from Hong Kong on a non‐stop basis for a weekly service which was operated until October when adverse weather made it necessary to keep this as a one‐stop facility. The non‐stop operation to London will however, be resumed in the middle of 1985. More evidence of the growth of long haul routes, in this case to Continental Europe, came with the start of a one‐stop operation between Frankfurt and Hong Kong which is undertaken four times a week and began in April, 1984. The airline also operates three times a week to Vancouver non‐stop from Hong Kong, which is its first service across the Pacific. Overall, the Cathay Pacific network serves 17 countries and includes destinations that range from Seoul in the north to Melbourne in the south, westward to London and east to Vancouver.

This study aims to examine the dynamics of banking competition between Islamic banks (IBs) and conventional banks (CBs) in emerging finance-oriented Islamic economies, also known as the QISMUT + 3 (i.e. Qatar, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Bahrein, Kuwait and Pakistan). The main aim was to conduct a comparative market power analysis between IBs and CBs in the 2006–2015 period.

The study used bank-specific and macro-economic variables available in the Orbis Bank Focus and the World Bank databases. The study applied a dynamic approach to detect endogeneity problems and unobserved heterogeneity using the two-step system GMM estimate.

The research shows that market power persists in both types of banks over time. It also demonstrates that capital adequacy does not explain the market power of banking in the studied countries. Unlike IBs, the scale of banking does not influence the market power CBs. Corruption undermines competition in the conventional banking system. However, because of the ideological orientation of IBs, corruption does not affect their competitiveness. IBs outperform CBs in QISMUT + 3 countries in terms of banking competitiveness. They also have higher persistency of market power in the region.

This study is a very beneficial source of information that can provide effective guidelines for efficient productivity and improved competitiveness of IBs and CBs in finance-oriented Islamic countries.

The study is the first to compare the market power of IBs and CBs in this country classification. In addition, the study examined a large number of IBs and CBs to carry out this research.

Social entrepreneurship has played a significant role in reducing unemployment and poverty, fixing other social issues and environmental concerns. Although there is an increasing concern on social entrepreneurship by the public sector, practitioner and scholars, there are still limited studies on predicting the intention to become a social entrepreneur. Thus, investigating social entrepreneurship intention using a systematic literature review (SLR) approach is crucial due to the lack of systematisation and categorisation in this field. Therefore, this study aims to conduct a SLR to identify the antecedents of social entrepreneurial intention (SEI) used by the previous research. In this sense, this chapter carries out a systematic review of the literature on social entrepreneurship intentions. The review is guided by the PRISMA Statement (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses). After the identification and screening process, only 56 articles were qualified for further analysis. This SLR focused on articles that are using quantitative research and in the English language published in Scopus. Although there is no limitation in the timeline, the search string results found that the related articles were published between 2010 and 2020. From the thematic analysis, nine main themes were found. The themes are categorised based on the antecedents of SEI used by previous research. There are nine antecedents found: (1) perceived desirability and feasibility, (2) attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control, (3) prior experience, (4) emotional factors, (5) self-efficacy, (6) personality, (7) support systems, (8) skills and competencies and (9) motivational factors. Further analysis of the themes has resulted in ten sub-themes. This chapter's contribution includes offering a clearer picture of the antecedents of social entrepreneurial intention that is still at its infancy stage. Additionally, this chapter managed to identify the research gaps and proposed future research agenda.

Over the years we have reported prosecutions where the defence has alleged, and with circumstantial support that the presence of a harmful foreign body in food was deliberate through the action of a single disgruntled employee or where the labour relations climate generally has been bad. It makes no difference to the manufacturer's responsibility—the offence is an absolute one—but occasionally courts have allowed it in mitigation. Sometimes, it has been the nature of the extraneous material, e.g. fragments of glass or metal, the like of which did not exist in the factory premises or plant. This may be taken as a symptom of the vandalism of the age, but more recently, two incidents have drawn attention to its dangers and provided a glimpse of the criminal mind which can inflict such injury on employers, and expose innocent consumers, of all ages, to possible harm.

As far back as 1956, independent projects for a supersonic carrier were already on the drawing boards in France and England but it was only on 29th November 1962 that the joint agreement that led to the Concorde programme.

Unprotected rams frequently suffer abnormally rapid wear, due to rust and corrosion, and as the effects are cumulative, the results become increasingly serious in the course of time. Leakages of oil and reduced efficiency in turn give rise to lower output and increased maintenance and replacement costs.

ON August 25, 1919, the first British air transport service was opened. On that day‐Air Transport and Travel Ltd. dispatched its first aircraft—a De Havilland Airco 4a— on a regular service from Hounslow, London, to Paris.

Several studies have studied the points that distinguish Islamic banks from conventional ones. The corresponding conclusions are a bit contradictory. This paper aims to study the similarities between Islamic and conventional banks in the Gulf countries using a new approach, namely, the clustering method based on dynamic time warping (DTW) distance.

To study the similarities between Islamic and conventional banks, in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, this study used the DTW distance. Then, a clustering based on this distance was carried out to find out which banks are the most similar. Finally, the authors have studied the factors that explain these similarities.

This empirical study covered 44 Islamic banks and 46 conventional banks in GCC countries during 2006–2015. The results show that Islamic and conventional banks are included in the same cluster for Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. In contrast, Islamic and conventional banks do not share the same cluster for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. This is because of the establishment of interest rates below discount rates. In this case, banks are incentivized to take more risks to compensate for interest losses, which increases efficiency and allocates Islamic and conventional banks to different clusters. Accordingly, there is no absolute discrimination because of the initial status between Islamic and conventional banks. However, the overall banks, either Islamic or conventional, are discriminated through the distance of the banking applied interest rate and the social discount rate.

DTW distance-based clustering is a very suitable method for emphasizing the similarities that may exist between conventional and Islamic banks. This technique has not previously been used in the literature in question.

The firm establishment of transatlantic Concorde operation provides a basis for a review of the last year and for a look at the future. Much has been spoken and written on the engineering and technological achievements of designing and producing Concorde and, perhaps less objectively, on the social and environmental factors which have aroused strong emotions for and against its operation. The author believes that the team expertise demanded by competitive airline operation is no less than that to be found in design and production. The review therefore makes no apology for presenting the airline aspects, problems and achievements of the British Airways Concorde operation.