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Advertisements often use fear appeals to encourage prevention focused behaviors. This approach has been somewhat successful in changing attitudes and behaviors, often encouraging consumers to secede from behaviors such as smoking or to adopt preventative behaviors such as engaging in health screenings. However, health-care marketers have been less successful in efforts to reduce obesity. The obesity crisis has led to an abundance of marketing communications designed to influence weight loss. Many of these focus on fear of physical health risks associated with being overweight which have a certain degree of uncertainty surrounding them. This study aims to examine financial threats that have lower perceptions of uncertainty, and the differential impact this type of threat has on elements of the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM).

A 2 × 2 experimental design is used to examine the differential impact of messages communicating threat of financial and physical risk on evoked fear, perceived uncertainty, perceived susceptibility, efficacy and intention to lose weight.

Overall results indicate that response to weight loss advertising varies given the type of threat presented. Results indicate that there is a greater level of uncertainty associated with physical health threats than that with financial threats. Moreover, even though individuals were more fearful of and felt more susceptible to physical threats, when they believed that the recommended behavior was feasible, financial threat was more influential.

To encourage weight loss and intentions to lose weight advertising in practice and advertising research primarily focus on the physical health risks associated with being overweight as a motivating factor. Current research explores the impact of financial threats on attitudes and behavioral intention and finds that financial threats are perceived as more certain than physical threats, and the communication of financial threats is more salient in its effect on weight loss intentions. An opportunity for future research is to further explore the impact of uncertainty in relation to components of EPPM and how threats varying in degrees of uncertainty may impact weight loss intentions.

Financial threat is defined as fearful-anxious uncertainty regarding one’s current and future financial situation. The purpose of this paper is to examine predictors and outcomes of financial threat in two samples of students who completed an online questionnaire for course credit. The theoretical model the authors proposed tested the association between personal debt, anxiety, and economic hardship with financial threat, and in turn, financial threat’s relationship with willingness to change financial behavior (e.g. increase income, cut expenses, and reduce debt), job search activity, and psychological distress. Consistent across samples, structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that the data fit the model and supported all four hypotheses. Debt, economic hardship, and anxiety were all related positively to financial threat, which itself related positively to willingness to change, job search, and psychological distress. Importantly, financial threat mediated the relationship between these economic-situational predictors and affective-behavioral outcomes of financial stain. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Using an online questionnaire, participants completed measures of economic hardship, intolerance of uncertainty, job search behavior, financial threat, life satisfaction, general health, perceived stress, and willingness to change to financial behavior. The authors developed and tested a model that explores emotional and cognitive reactions to financial stressors following the recession.

Results of SEM revealed that the data fit the model and no modification indices were suggested. Examination of parameter estimates indicated that total debt, economic hardship, and anxiety were positively related to financial threat. Financial threat, in turn, positively related to willingness to change one’s financial behaviors, job search, and psychological distress. In addition, economic hardship and anxiety were positively related to psychological distress. That is, individuals who were feeling more threatened by their financial situation were more willing to change their financial situation and were more likely to engage in job search behavior. They were also more likely to report more psychological distress than individuals reporting lower levels of financial threat.

This study was cross-sectional and therefore precludes causal interpretations of the findings. Longitudinal data with repeated assessments of all measures would help determine the direction of causation. Also, the study relied on self-report data, which is prone to bias. For example, it is possible that some participants did not know their exact debt levels, which may have resulted in an under- or overestimation of debt levels. Future research should extend this line of research using objective measures. While the model tested in this study examined the impact of economic factors on perceived threat, behavior, and psychological distress, it did not include social and psychological resources. For example, the authors did not include measures of social support, coping, or personality, which may moderate the impact of economic variables and stress on psychological distress. Although financial knowledge/literacy was not studied here, future research could include it since it has been associated with a variety of financial behaviors such as cash-flow management, credit management, saving, and investing. There is some evidence that financial literacy can decrease emotional stress and anxiety (Vitt et al., 2000).

The current study can help researchers and practitioners understand the concept of financial threat among university students. For example, if students have incurred student loans and debt and begin displaying symptoms of distress, like anxiousness, worry, and irritability, they could be referred to a professional experienced in working with emotional and behavioral disorders related to financial issues. It can also help practitioners gain an understanding and insight into clients’ poor financial decision making. Government could initiate programs that help individuals cope with the negative effects of unemployment. Given that young people are experiencing disproportionately high unemployment that can have a lasting adverse effect on employment prospects and future earnings, the current post-secondary curriculum needs to prepare young people for the world of work, and gain a footing in the labor market. One way to achieve this is through high-quality work experiences (e.g. internships/apprenticeships). Identifying ways to mitigate the effects of debt and economic hardship is also imperative. For example, money and debt advice may improve one’s financial circumstances, which, in turn, may improve their physical and psychological well-being.

Future studies could focus on developing models predicting to financial stress using personality, psychological resources, and an objective measure of financial knowledge. Despite these limitations, this research demonstrates how emotional factors need to be included in economic models that also include debt and economic hardship. The study contributes to the economic and psychological literature by documenting how economic hardship and debt influence perceptions of threat, planned behavior, and psychological distress. The authors take a unique approach to describing economic hardship and financial threat as antecedents of distress, job search, and willingness to change. Future research could be directed toward employing the model for predicting behavior that would lessen economic stress and thereby leading to increased psychological well-being.

The study develops and tests an original theoretical model linking financial, emotional, and psychological variable in a comprehensive framework that is then tested empirically. This model is original with this paper.

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of the Ponzi schemes and revocation of licences of some financial institutions in Ghana on financial threat.

The study adopted a quantitative research approach. Convenient sampling method was used to select 435 individuals from three regions in Ghana. Standardize questionnaire developed by the researcher was used as the main data collection instrument. The binary logistic regression was used to test the relationship between the dependent variable and the independent variables.

The results of the study showed a positive relationship between financial threat and job loss, general health, information search and loss of investment. However, negative relationship was identified between financial threat and total debt, stress, economic hardship and anxiety. Findings from this study imply that job loss, general health, information search and loss of investment are major factors that determined financial threat in Ghana.

This indicates that individuals in Ghana have become uncertain regarding the use of current and future financial services in Ghana because most individuals have lost their jobs in the financial institutions, cannot get access to safe drinking water and education, need to gather more information before investing in financial institutions in Ghana and losing of funds invested.

This study is the first to test the effects of the Ponzi schemes and the revocation of licences of some financial institutions in Ghana on financial threat using binary logistic regression.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to existing financial literature within a less researched area through a systematic, organized, and holistic approach. This study advances the notion of considering terrorist attacks as a heterogeneous group of events by employing a multidimensional approach. The event study methodology was used to investigate the impact of 46 terrorist attacks occurring on the soil of OECD countries since 1990 on stock markets in US, UK, Spain, and Denmark. Thereby, terrorist attacks are considered as events conveying information to financial markets, which is processed by investors and subsequently reflected in security prices. This chapter is the first contribution within financial literature to distinguish and categorize terrorist attacks through several dimensions and investigate the effect of various characteristics on stock markets. The multidimensional analytical approach consisted of six dimensions, which included an examination of the national stock markets, differences across industries, the underlying threat characteristics, the size of the attack, and the development over time and geospatial aspects. It is concluded that terrorist attacks exhibiting international threat characteristics result in significantly larger and boundary spanning negative abnormal returns, which impact stock markets beyond the country in which the attack occurred. Additionally, the size of the terrorist attack amplifies the negative impact on stock markets. However, while the impact on stock markets was found to be immediate indicating that stock markets are quick and efficient in absorbing new information, the negative impact is likely to evaporate within five trading days.

This paper seeks to identify the internal threats posed to financial institutions by international organized crime (IOC) groups, and outline relevant law enforcement strategies.

Case studies and historical data from several US law enforcement agencies were relied on to identify the IOC threats, and to provide a subjective description of a strategic framework.

IOC has steadily expanded its presence, sophistication and influence, and today poses a substantial threat to financial institutions and markets throughout the world. IOC groups routinely utilize corrupt bank employees, attorneys, accountants and other gatekeepers, or “enemy insiders,” in a wide array of complex schemes involving money laundering, financial fraud, and high‐tech computer intrusions resulting in billions of dollars of losses each year to individual consumers and the global economy. A comprehensive law enforcement strategy to combat IOC must prioritize the threats, marshal intelligence, capitalize on foreign partnerships, and employ non‐law enforcement measures.

Law enforcement must increase its efforts to work collaboratively with public and private institutions, academia, and foreign counterparts to share intelligence on IOC activities, forecast emerging threats, identify priority targets, and pursue adaptable strategies that will be effective and sustainable far into the future.

The paper increases the public's awareness, and promotes collaborative efforts among various societal components to address the IOC threats to financial institutions.

The successful implementation of the strategies discussed in this paper will enhance the ability of law enforcement and prosecution agencies to tackle the evolving challenges of IOC, and to help preserve the stability and integrity of our financial institutions.

This analysis relates to the strategic orientation of public, private and not‐for‐profit festivals and the adoption of stakeholder, financial, marketing and management strategies that enable them to achieve their organisational objectives. The paper aims to address these issues.

In order to test the effectiveness of this new strategic SWOT approach, data from the four‐country study of festivals were employed to investigate how a strategic approach can be adopted by festival managers in the public, private and not‐for‐profit sector. The strategic issues that confront all festivals, including, financial management and related issues of costs, revenue, sponsorship and support are the subject of analysis.

The findings indicate that among festival managers there are some interesting and significant differences between the three ownership types in terms of their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Private and non‐profit festivals are comparatively more strategic in responding to financial opportunities, threats and weaknesses and public festivals are more dependent on a single stakeholder and source of revenue. Other significant differences exist in terms of stakeholder management and sponsorship strategies, which can be explained with reference to resource dependency theory.

Strategic SWOT analysis can provide a more rigorous and structured approach to researching the multiple challenges that festival managers face and the strategies they adopt. This paper demonstrates that it has some utility in identifying strategies in response to financial, stakeholder and sponsorship imperatives.

Strategic SWOT analysis provides event and festival managers with a new tool for understanding the range of challenges and opportunities that they can address through adopting a more strategic response.

The field of festival and event management studies is largely devoid of any literature with reference to analysis of strategies that different festivals adopt in response to identified weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This paper provides new insights into the strategic management of public, private and not‐for‐profit festival organisations using an original approach and an extensive four‐country dataset.

In recent years, Australian regulators have focussed on the financial crime compliance obligations of banks and other reporting entities, and there is a clear expectation that banks develop effective approaches to the management of non-financial risk. Red teaming is a methodology used in the intelligence and military domains to understand external threats. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of red teaming methods, set out a framework for using them in financial crime compliance and provide practical examples of red teaming exercises, which banks can use to manage financial crime risks.

This paper provides an overview of the financial crime compliance landscape in Australia. It outlines some of the key concepts and techniques used in red teaming, drawing in particular on the framework developed by strategic policy expert Micah Zenko. It explores the benefits of red teaming for financial crime compliance practice, concluding with three example exercises for financial crime teams.

Based on this research, red teaming methods can assist banks in taking a proactive approach to identify and mitigating financial crime risks. Rather than confining red teaming to cybersecurity applications, banks should consider they can use red teaming methods in their financial crime compliance functions.

This paper represents the first assessment of how to apply red teaming methods to risk management in financial crime compliance. It combines a historical and theoretical overview of red teaming methods with example red teaming exercises for money laundering, sanctions and strategic policy scenarios.

While central bankers have widely discussed the trade-offs of negative interest rates on monetary policy, the consequences of negative rates on financial stability are less well understood. The purpose of this paper is to examine the likely and possible financial stability consequences of a negative rates policy with particular focus on banks, short-term funding markets, foreign exchange markets, asset managers, pension funds and insurers.

It draws from international experience with negative interest rates to identify financial stability threats posed to any economy by negative interest rates, and it also highlights where the US experience is likely to differ.

In time, financial market threats and other logistical issues of a negative interest rate policy can be managed or overcome. Even cumulatively, these threats are likely to be small as long as the rates remain only modestly negative. However, if the rates remain negative for long periods or they become more sharply negative, the rewards of avoiding negative rates increase.

Does the negative interest rate policy directly or through these challenges of implementation present a substantial obstacle to achieving financial stability objectives? As policy rates go negative in a greater share of the global economy, the financial stability consequences remain poorly understood and under discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether there is a meaningful difference, viewed from a financial perspective, in distinguishing between organised crime and terrorist organisations, with regard to the control and mitigation of the threats that they pose to society.

The paper uses conceptual models obtained from enterprise theory and economics, as well as criminology, and makes use of case studies through the application of these models.

The paper finds that when viewed from a financial perspective, there is no meaningful difference in distinguishing between the groups because many have undergone processes of convergence and transformation, such that they assume each other’s operational and motivational characteristics. However, the answer also depends on how precisely one defines each type of illicit group as well as the transitions they undergo.

The value of this paper is that it applies two separate models on interactions between organised crime and terrorist organisations, the terror–crime continuum and interaction spectrum, to real life situations. After assessing their validity for more recent examples of such illicit groups, it then provides a balanced argument as to distinguishing between organised crime and terrorism. One limitation towards the paper’s originality, however, is that it draws mainly from pre-existing literature.

The paper intends to comprehend the pattern of usage of FinTech services among bank customers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper also examines the factors influencing the adoption of FinTech services by using the constructs from the technology acceptance model (TAM) together with highlighting the issues faced in using FinTech services in Assam.

The research is empirical in nature. Data have been collected from 1,066 prime earners of the households having a bank account.

There has been an upsurge in the use of FinTech services in the area of study. Apart from government and private service employees, businessmen, self-employed professionals, many daily-wage earners and agriculturists have also experienced an increase in their frequency of usage of FinTech services thereby making technology-based financial services an indispensable tool in enhancing access, improving inclusivity in the times of crisis and aftermath. Government support, trust, perceived usefulness (PU), attitude and social influence have a positive influence on FinTech adoption; however, perceived risks impact respondents’ trust towards FinTech services thereby requiring necessary measures to evaluate organizations’ preparedness to deal with cyber threats.

The paper provides insight into the factors impacting the adoption of FinTech services to stimulate superior connectivity infrastructure, robust security measures and maintaining financial stability with adequate supervisory and monitoring regulations to enhance trust towards FinTech services during the crisis and aftermath.