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This study seeks to build a financial uncertainty index for Saudi Arabia. This index serves as a leading indicator of Saudi economic activity and helps to describe economic fluctuations and forecast economic trends.

This study adopts an extension of the Jurado et al. (2015) procedure by combining financial uncertainty factors with their net spillover effects on GDP and inflation to construct an aggregate financial uncertainty index. The authors consider 13 monthly financial variables for Saudi Arabia from January 2010 to June 2021.

The empirical results show that the constructed financial uncertainty estimates are good leading indicators of economic activity. The robustness analysis suggests that the authors’ proposed financial uncertainty estimators outperform the alternative estimates used by other existing approaches to estimate the financial conditions index.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt at constructing a financial uncertainty index for Saudi Arabia. This study extends the empirical literature, from which the authors propose a novel conceptual framework for building a financial uncertainty index by combining the approach of Jurado et al. (2015) and the time-varying connectedness network approach proposed by Antonakakis et al. (2020)

In this paper, we aim to provide an extensive analysis to understand how various factors influence electricity prices in competitive markets, focusing on the day-ahead electricity market in Romania.

Our study period began in January 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, and continued for several months after the onset of the war in Ukraine. During this time, we also consider other challenges like reduced market competitiveness, droughts and water scarcity. Our initial dataset comprises diverse variables: prices of essential energy sources (like gas and oil), Danube River water levels (indicating hydrological conditions), economic indicators (such as inflation and interest rates), total energy consumption and production in Romania and a breakdown of energy generation by source (coal, gas, hydro, oil, nuclear and renewable energy sources) from various data sources. Additionally, we included carbon certificate prices and data on electricity import, export and other related variables. This dataset was collected via application programming interface (API) and web scraping, and then synchronized by date and hour.

We discover that the competitiveness significantly affected electricity prices in Romania. Furthermore, our study of electricity price trends and their determinants revealed indicators of economic health in 2019 and 2020. However, from 2021 onwards, signs of a potential economic crisis began to emerge, characterized by changes in the normal relationships between prices and quantities, among other factors. Thus, our analysis suggests that electricity prices could serve as a predictive index for economic crises. Overall, the Granger causality findings from 2019 to 2022 offer valuable insights into the factors driving energy market dynamics in Romania, highlighting the importance of economic policies, fuel costs and environmental regulations in shaping these dynamics.

We combine principal component analysis (PCA) to reduce the dataset’s dimensionality. Following this, we use continuous wavelet transform (CWT) to explore frequency-domain relationships between electricity price and quantity in the day-ahead market (DAM) and the components derived from PCA. Our research also delves into the competitiveness level in the DAM from January 2019 to August 2022, analyzing the Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHI).

This chapter delineates the conditions, challenges and opportunities for the sustainability of small entrepreneurial firms involved in local food tourism. It raises awareness on how these businesses can enhance their competitiveness in this market. It puts forward an analytical framework that is based on the economic, social, environmental and cultural sustainability of small local food tourism entrepreneurs in Swedish, Italian and Spanish contexts. This research implies that the financial sustainability of these small enterprises is contributing to local economic growth and employment in their country. From the social sustainability aspect these tourism businesses are intrinsically linked to local communities. Their responsible practices are meant to safeguard the environmental sustainability as well as the preservation of their local culture and heritage. At the same time, they enable them to add value to their destination’s cultural sustainability.

The aim of this paper is to study the effect of strategic and project related potential risks on project delivery in Qatar. Two objectives have been defined. The first is to identify potential risk indicators (manifest variables) and categorize them (constructs/latent variables) based on a literature review, while the second is to examine and rank the relationships between the indicators and constructs by developing a structural equation model.

Twenty-five indicators were identified from the literature review and categorized into five groups. To collect the data, an online questionnaire was distributed in Qatar, and 116 responses were obtained. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine the model. The model that was developed based on the research hypothesis met goodness-of-fit, reliability and validity requirements.

The results showed that all constructs contributed well to the model and that the project parties (PPs) have the highest contribution with an effect weight of 0.209 followed by economic and legal (EL) conditions with an effect weight of 0.205. Site and safety (SS) conditions were third with an effect weight of 0.200 while environmental, natural and technological (ENT) conditions were fourth with an effect weight of 0.1989. The last ranked construct is political and social (PS) conditions with an effect weight of 0.186. Based on the outcome of the SEM, recommendations were provided to industry professionals in Qatar about mitigating the impact of potential risks on construction project.

To the authors' best knowledge, this is the first study to quantify the effects of strategic and project related risks on a construction project using SEM, considering the risk management indicators of SS, EL, ENT, PS in Qatar. The study's practical implications are to enlarge the project's risk management plan by considering the strategic and project related risks to enhance the project performance for the cost overrun and delay. The study is intended for construction projects in Qatar, but it can easily be adapted to other parts of the world given the local circumstances.

This study aims to assess how airline companies can frame their message strategies given the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Message forms used in empirical tests included message framings, regulatory focuses and benefit types. A total of 450 participants were recruited through an online survey.

Promotion-focused behavioral intention was more effective when personal economic benefit was negatively framed. However, prevention-focused behavioral intention was more effective where social benefit was positively framed. The results were moderated by personal traits such as the level of perceived COVID-19 threat.

The findings of this study can help create new communication strategies during risky or critical situations.

本文实证分析中所使用的信息形式包括信息框架、监管重点和利益类型。通过线上问卷调查, 共招募了450名参与者。数据分析采用了ANOVA检验和Hayes（2017）的PROCESS检验。

当个人经济利益是负面框架时, 促进定向的行为意向更有效。然而, 当社会利益是正面框架时, 防御定向的行为意向更为有效。上述关系受到个人特质的调节, 如COVID-19感知威胁的程度。

本研究的结果是新颖且有意义的, 有助于在风险或危急情况下创造新的传播策略。

Las formas de mensaje utilizadas en las pruebas empíricas incluyeron encuadres de mensajes, enfoques normativos y tipos de beneficios. Se reclutó a un total de 450 participantes a través de una empresa en línea porque era difícil recopilar datos durante la pandemia.

Este estudio pretende evaluar cómo las compañías aéreas pueden enmarcar sus estrategias de mensajes teniendo en cuenta los efectos de la pandemia de COVID-19.

El comportamiento centrado en la promoción fue más eficaz cuando el beneficio económico personal se enmarcó negativamente. Sin embargo, el comportamiento centrado en la prevención fue más eficaz cuando el beneficio social se enmarcó positivamente. Los resultados fueron moderados por rasgos personales como el nivel de amenaza percibida de COVID-19.

Las conclusiones de este estudio son muy novedosas y significativas en la medida en que pueden ayudar a crear nuevas estrategias de comunicación durante situaciones de riesgo o críticas.

This study analyses configurations of national culture as boundary conditions of countries’ national systems of innovation (NSI). Drawing from the NSI approach, we argue that culture’s role is that of a contingency factor shaping the relationship between investments in innovation and national innovation outputs.

We assessed the moderation effect of national culture through a systematic, two-stage approach using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), which allows the analysis of changes induced by the moderator variables. Analyses were conducted with a diverse sample of 61 countries over a period spanning 12 years, from 2011 to 2022.

Findings reveal that investments in innovation, but not individual cultural dimensions, is a necessary condition for high innovation outputs. Furthermore, several configurations of cultural dimensions were identified as moderators of the relationship between investments in innovation and innovation outputs.

This study provides insights into cross-national innovation research by exposing the role of cultural configurations, rather than just individual cultural dimensions, as boundary conditions involved in the achievement of high levels of innovation.

This study aims to examine the role of financial inclusion and institutional factors such as corruption and the rule of law (RL) on the credit risk and stability of banks.

The study considers a sample of 61 developing countries and uses very robust estimation techniques that allow controlling for endogeneity, heteroskedasticity and serial correlation, such as instrumental variables method in two-stage least squares (IV-2SLS), instrumental variables generalized method of moments (IV-GMM), as well as system of generalized methods of moments in two stages (Sys-2GMM).

The results confirm that financial inclusion and strengthening the RL can significantly contribute to reducing credit risk and improving the financial stability of banks; in contrast, the authors find that weak control of corruption aggravates credit risk. In addition, they found that greater competitiveness in the banking sector increases credit risk.

This study supports the need to promote financial inclusion and strengthen institutional factors to improve the stability of the banking sector, as well as promote general well-being in the economy.

This study contributes to the scarce literature by simultaneously using institutional factors such as corruption and the RL and macroeconomic variables such as economic growth and inflation in the relationship between financial inclusion and the banking sector, as well as considering competitiveness as an explanatory factor for banks’ credit risk and stability.

This study aims to address the critical need for innovative financing solutions in the global housing sector, focusing specifically on Malaysia’s distinct housing finance system encompassing both conventional and Islamic loans. The primary objective is to develop a transformative housing finance model that addresses affordability challenges and reshapes the Malaysian housing landscape.

The study presents an alternate housing finance model for Malaysia, integrating lower monthly payments and reduced household debt. Key variables include house price appreciation rates, interest rates, initial guarantee fees and loan-to-value ratios. Inspired by the Help to Buy (HTB) scheme, the model aligns with proven global initiatives for enhanced affordability, balancing payment amounts, loan interest rates and acceptable price thresholds.

The study’s findings promise to address affordability disparities and reshape Malaysia’s housing finance landscape. The emphasis is on introducing a structured repayment plan that offers a sustainable path to homeownership, particularly for low-income families. Incorporating the future value adaptation concept, inspired by reverse mortgages and Islamic finance, enhances adaptability, ensuring long-term sustainability despite economic shifts.

The proposed model promotes widespread access to homeownership, offering practical solutions for policymakers to improve affordability, prompting adaptable risk management strategies for financial institutions and empowering potential homebuyers with increased flexibility.

The study introduces a transformative housing finance model for Malaysia, merging elements from reverse mortgages, Islamic finance and the HTB scheme, offering potential applicability to similar systems globally.

Financial problems of football clubs during economic crises (such as COVID-19 pandemic) highlight the necessity of achieving economic sustainability. In addition, the economic sustainability of football clubs is accepted as a principle of the development of sports business. Therefore, it is reasonable to conduct a study with the aim of examining economic sustainability in the field of sports club management.

The present study adopted a qualitative approach to research and used semi-structured interviews in order to develop a framework for the economic sustainability of football clubs. A total of 13 members of football clubs in the Iranian premier league participated in this study.

The findings highlighted the fact that a number of factors, including media and social networks, entrepreneurship and development of club business, commercialization of the club, privatization, investment and ownership, strategic communication plan, financial management and management instability, promoted the economic sustainability of football clubs and improved their financial performance.

This study highlighted the importance of the changes in the structure of football clubs and the strategic plans for promoting entrepreneurship and commercialization. Moreover, it underlined the major role of the environmental and management components of football clubs in their financial sustainability.