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1 – 9 of 9Elizabeth A. Maharaj, Don U.A. Galagedera and Jonathan Dark
The purpose of this paper is to examine the volatility of daily returns in a sample of developed and emerging equity markets at different time scales through wavelet…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the volatility of daily returns in a sample of developed and emerging equity markets at different time scales through wavelet decomposition. Such information is vital for international investors who have different time horizons for their investment decisions and trading strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
The wavelet technique used here allows the return series to be viewed at different frequency by decomposing the series into different time horizons known as time scales. The decomposed return series enable investigation of return variability at different return intervals.
Findings
In an analysis at different time scales, there is no evidence to suggest that the return dynamics of developed and emerging markets are different. In both types of markets, return variance is time scale dependent, satisfying a pure power law process, and the variability in returns is more likely to be due to the dynamics at the lower time scales. While emerging markets generally exhibit a higher level of volatility, the relative contribution from each time scale is quite similar to that of the developed markets.
Originality/value
The difference in the return dynamics between emerging and developed markets is observed at the lowest time scale. This is an indication that differences in the return dynamics between the two types of markets may be more likely in the short term (high frequency) rather than in the long term. A plausible reason for this is speculative trading. Such information is vital for international investors who have different time horizons for their investment decisions and trading strategies.
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Tinashe Timothy Harry, Nicole Dodd and Willie Chinyamurindi
South Africa has witnessed an increase in self-initiated academic expatriates (SIAEs) coming into the country from all over the world. This movement of labour can result in South…
Abstract
Purpose
South Africa has witnessed an increase in self-initiated academic expatriates (SIAEs) coming into the country from all over the world. This movement of labour can result in South Africa performing better than any other African country. However, expatriation is accompanied by several challenges which affect both work and non-work scopes. Given that more is needed to understand the lived experiences of the expatriates, especially self-initiated expatriates from and in Africa, the purpose of this paper is to provide the basis for interventions to assist the expatriates in overcoming challenges by understanding their lived experiences.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used an interpretivist approach to understand the lived experiences of SIAEs. The data were collected through the use of unstructured interviews of 25 expatriate academics within South Africa. The individual narratives were analysed through structural and thematic analysis to develop themes.
Findings
Through the stories and narratives, the expatriation experience was one framed to be a challenging process. The lived experiences can be grouped into life and career experiences. The life experiences consist of immigration difficulties, family separation, social adjustment difficulties and unavailability of accommodation. Career experiences include remuneration differences, gender discrimination, limited professional development opportunities and communication difficulties, which affect both work and non-work experiences. Person–environment fit did not play a significant role in the experiences of the academic expatriates.
Practical implications
The findings showed that the lived experiences of SIAEs in Africa were mostly negative. Higher education institutions looking at hiring academic expatriates should assist the expatriates to have better experiences not only for individual benefit but for institutional benefit as well. However, this role is not only placed in the hands of the organisation but may also require individual effort.
Originality/value
The findings outlined in this study provide a picture of the lived experiences of SIAEs in an African context. The findings are fundamental in understanding this neglected sample group in the extant literature. They also assist in advancing literature and proposing possible solutions. All this is important, given global talent shortages which have warranted the need for highly skilled employees in countries like South Africa.
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Mala Raghavan, Jonathan Dark and Elizabeth Ann Maharaj
The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which the capital control measures implemented by the Malaysian central bank in late 1998 had an influence on segmenting the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which the capital control measures implemented by the Malaysian central bank in late 1998 had an influence on segmenting the Malaysian equity market from other major equity markets.
Design/methodology/approach
The S&P 500, the Nikkei 225 Index, the STI Index and the KLSE Composite Index are considered. The discrete wavelet transform technique – “Haar” is employed to decompose the series into various time scales during the pre‐ and post‐capital control periods in Malaysia. The decomposed series are then used to estimate the interdependence between KLSE Composite Index with the other three markets at various time scales.
Findings
The empirical findings support three conclusions. First, in the pre‐capital control period, Singapore is the most influential market followed by the US across all time scales in transmitting news into Malaysia. Second, after the imposition of capital controls, the spillover effects from Singapore to Malaysia have declined substantially, suggesting a reduced integration between these two markets. Finally, in the post‐capital control period, all three markets appear to be imparting a similar but moderate level of influence on the Malaysian market.
Research limitations/implications
To explore the return and volatility spillovers, the use of return and volatility series at different time scales provided a greater level of insight into the dynamics than the standard approaches which employ only one series in the time domain.
Originality/value
The results from this paper will have potential implications for asset allocation, the pricing of domestic securities, the implementation of global hedging and trading strategies and the evaluation of regulatory proposals to restrict international capital flows.
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– The purpose of this paper is to report on the 2014 Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Conference held at Technische Universitat Munchen, Munich.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report on the 2014 Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Conference held at Technische Universitat Munchen, Munich.
Design/methodology/approach
The report is based on delegate observations, notes and audience reactions to papers presented on research conducted.
Findings
The papers presented new boundaries on diversity research. This included research on the importance of cultural diversity in the outcomes in the hotel industry by being led by foreign managers in Cyprus; how skilled Romanians construct and understand their identities as skilled professionals and members of stigmatised European migrants and how a diverse workforce experiences power utilising a Foucauladian understanding of power.
Originality/value
This report integrates a number of themes from diversity research across the world, highlighting progress and the suggested direction for future diversity research.
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Latisha Reynolds, Amber Willenborg, Samantha McClellan, Rosalinda Hernandez Linares and Elizabeth Alison Sterner
This paper aims to present recently published resources on information literacy and library instruction providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present recently published resources on information literacy and library instruction providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2016.
Findings
The paper provides information about each source, describes the characteristics of current scholarship and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions.
Originality/value
The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.
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Carolyn Caffrey, Hannah Lee, Tessa Withorn, Maggie Clarke, Amalia Castañeda, Kendra Macomber, Kimberly M. Jackson, Jillian Eslami, Aric Haas, Thomas Philo, Elizabeth Galoozis, Wendolyn Vermeer, Anthony Andora and Katie Paris Kohn
This paper presents recently published resources on library instruction and information literacy. It provides an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper presents recently published resources on library instruction and information literacy. It provides an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering various library types, study populations and research contexts. The selected bibliography is useful to efficiently keep up with trends in library instruction for busy practitioners, library science students and those wishing to learn about information literacy in other contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
This article annotates 424 English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations, theses and reports on library instruction and information literacy published in 2021. The sources were selected from the EBSCO platform for Library, Information Science, and Technology Abstracts (LISTA), Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), Scopus, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, and WorldCat, published in 2021 that included the terms “information literacy,” “library instruction,” or “information fluency” in the title, abstract or keywords. The sources were organized in Zotero. Annotations summarize the source, focusing on the findings or implications. Each source was categorized into one of seven pre-determined categories: K-12 Education, Children and Adolescents; Academic and Professional Programs; Everyday Life, Community, and the Workplace; Libraries and Health Information Literacy; Multiple Library Types; and Other Information Literacy Research and Theory.
Findings
The paper provides a brief description of 424 sources and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions.
Originality/value
The information may be used by librarians, researchers and anyone interested as a quick and comprehensive reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy within 2021.
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The purpose of this paper is to present a tentative typology of social enterprises in South Africa. It also tries to establish a base line on the current state of social…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a tentative typology of social enterprises in South Africa. It also tries to establish a base line on the current state of social entrepreneurship in South Africa. While the term seems to have been appearing more and more frequently in both the public and political domain in the past decade or so, the current knowledge of social enterprise in South Africa (as in Africa more broadly) remains very limited.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper tries to address this dearth of academic literature on social entrepreneurship in South Africa by reviewing the extant academic and grey literature as well as various policy documents with the aim of discerning the various legal forms under which social enterprises can incorporate.
Findings
The paper distinguishes three avenues for incorporation: as a non-profit entity, a for-profit entity or a hybrid structure.
Research limitations/implications
It calls for both rigorous and systematic empirical and theoretical work that is grounded in the realities of the country to strengthen sound policy decision-making as well as effective organisation and management of these organisations, which can play a crucial role in both economic and social development of South Africa.
Originality/value
As part of the International Comparative Social Enterprise Models (ICSEM) project, this paper contributes to the understanding of the geographically distinct manifestations of social enterprise in South Africa. At the same time, it aims to present a research agenda to move social entrepreneurship in South Africa forward.
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The purpose of this paper is to consider women in rural villages of Keiskammahoek in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. What the author discovered is that some women are…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to consider women in rural villages of Keiskammahoek in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. What the author discovered is that some women are carving out a space through a complex, triple relation to the state. The state is distributor of social grants, a midwife of economic activity, and a technocratic system of governance and “service delivery.” The paper asks whether post-wage livelihoods are simply survivalists or have emancipatory potential.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on research conducted in 2013-2015 in the rural villages of Keiskammahoek. The author spent time in the villages informally speaking to women and conducted 39 in-depth interviews.
Findings
The author found that the women are finding ways to engender non-capitalist relations in new and creative ways within their rural communities. The three sources of state activity (and power) – grants, economic projects, and governance – are engaged and used in different ways, but together create an interesting nexus of livelihoods and survival. What is interesting is the survivalist livelihoods – even if not representing an alternative mode of production – are allowing women a degree of independence, dignity, and self-determination.
Originality/value
The research has not been published and this argument has not been made before. The manuscript is a new approach to understanding post-wage livelihoods.
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Fredrick Simpeh and Christopher Amoah
COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in a new norm of operation and has further presented new health and safety challenges in all sectors, including the construction sector…
Abstract
Purpose
COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in a new norm of operation and has further presented new health and safety challenges in all sectors, including the construction sector. Consequently, several guidelines have been developed and instituted by various countries to prevent the spread of the disease among the citizenry. This paper aims to explore the COVID-19 guidelines incorporated in the health and safety management policies of construction firms in South Africa.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative approach was adopted for the study. Data was collected from construction companies by means of an open-ended questionnaire. The open-ended questionnaire was distributed by using the purposive sampling technique. The collected data was analysed with thematic content analysis.
Findings
The findings show that most construction companies have incorporated aspects of COVID-19 guidelines into the site health and safety policies, whereas the majority of the companies had incorporated guidelines such as site access, handling of COVID-19 cases, induction, screening and social distancing; only a few had incorporated guidelines such as compliance, sanitisation, sick leave, wearing of personal protective equipment, audit and risk assessment, lunchtime rules and grouping of workers into the health and safety policies on site.
Research limitations/implications
Data was collected from higher grade firms; therefore, the research findings may not be applied to smaller construction firms. A study that focuses on lower grades is recommended.
Practical implications
Construction companies could use the recommendations provided to improve upon the policies developed/adopted to curb the spread of CVID-19 on-site.
Originality/value
Research on COVID-19 construction site health and safety measures are still being developed. Thus, this study contributes to advancing the body of knowledge in this evolving field.
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