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The purpose of this paper is to examine the presence of unit roots in the stock prices of 16 OECD countries.

Heterogeneous panel unit root tests developed by Im et al. (1997/2003) and Pesaran (2007).

Under the assumption of cross-sectional independence across the panel, the authors find no evidence of unit roots, thus failing to reject mean reversion in the stock prices for all the countries in the sample. However, under the assumption of cross-sectional dependence, an assumption borne out by the diagnostic test results, the authors find support for the presence of unit roots in the stock prices.

Thus, the use of more robust panel unit root tests seems to raise questions about the long-run predictability of the stock market, at least in the context of the OECD countries.

Thus, it seems that in the long run, an investment policy of buy and hold has still much to offer.

This paper seeks to conduct a numerical study to investigate heat transfer in turbulent, unconfined, submerged, and inclined impinging jet discharged from a slot nozzle, utilising finite volume code FLUENT.

Two re‐normalisation group k‐ε and the basic Reynolds stress models by using enhanced wall treatment for near wall turbulent modelling were applied and the local Nusselt numbers were compared with experiments. The enhanced wall treatment solves the fully turbulent region and viscous sublayer by considering a single blended function of both layers.

In inclined impinging jet by movement of stagnation point to the uphill side of the impinging plate, the location of the maximum Nusselt number moves to the uphill side of the plate. However, this movement increases by increasing of H/D and by decreasing of Reynolds number and inclination angle. For a flat plate impinging jet, the results were found to be less than 8 per cent different and for inclined impinging jet, more sensitive to H/D, 5‐20 per cent different in comparison with experiments. In addition, the flow streamlines were consistent with location of the heat transfer peak on the impinging surface.

Reynolds numbers in range of 4,000‐16,000, the ratio of nozzle height to hydraulic diameter of the nozzle (H/D) in range of 4‐10, and inclination angle of air jet and plate in range of 40‐90° were considered.

A unique achievement of this study in comparison with experimental data was locating the exact peak of the local Nusselt number on impinging plate by change of Reynolds number, H/D, and inclination angle.

Nowadays, universities increasingly consider reputation as a key component for improving quality and rankings. A positive reputation opens doors to added value and diverse opportunities. This paper aims to explore Middle Eastern higher education managers' perceptions of university reputation components.

Given the significance of this concept in Middle Eastern universities, a descriptive phenomenological qualitative approach is adopted to identify these key components. The study includes interviews with university managers, and data are collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed thematically.

The findings reveal that, from the perspective of higher education managers, university reputation is influenced by four main components: university management and leadership, quality and performance, identity and image and social responsibility. These components are tailored to the context of Middle Eastern countries.

Practical implications are clearly laid out in the form of four key themes for higher education managers in Middle Eastern countries to manage reputation.

The study’s outcomes can be used as a guide for university managers in developing countries to change the situation in their favor and achieve great success in the competitive condition of universities by planning and making policies in this direction. Also, the managers of higher education in the Middle Eastern countries can take advantage of the components of this study to improve the quality and quantity of their universities and take an important step towards increasing the university’s reputation at the international level.

While it is evident that the introduction of machine learning and the availability of big data have revolutionized various organizational operations and processes, existing academic and practitioner research within decision process literature has mostly ignored the nuances of these influences on human decision-making. Building on existing research in this area, this paper aims to define these concepts from a decision-making perspective and elaborates on the influences of these emerging technologies on human analytical and intuitive decision-making processes.

The authors first provide a holistic understanding of important drivers of digital transformation. The authors then conceptualize the impact that analytics tools built on artificial intelligence (AI) and big data have on intuitive and analytical human decision processes in organizations.

The authors discuss similarities and differences between machine learning and two human decision processes, namely, analysis and intuition. While it is difficult to jump to any conclusions about the future of machine learning, human decision-makers seem to continue to monopolize the majority of intuitive decision tasks, which will help them keep the upper hand (vis-à-vis machines), at least in the near future.

The work contributes to research on rational (analytical) and intuitive processes of decision-making at the individual, group and organization levels by theorizing about the way these processes are influenced by advanced AI algorithms such as machine learning.

Decisions are building blocks of organizational success. Therefore, a better understanding of the way human decision processes can be impacted by advanced technologies will prepare managers to better use these technologies and make better decisions. By clarifying the boundaries/overlaps among concepts such as AI, machine learning and big data, the authors contribute to their successful adoption by business practitioners.

The work suggests that human decision-makers will not be replaced by machines if they continue to invest in what they do best: critical thinking, intuitive analysis and creative problem-solving.

The work elaborates on important drivers of digital transformation from a decision-making perspective and discusses their practical implications for managers.

This paper aims to identify the factors that affect dividend payments for Saudi Arabian Islamic and conventional banks and to test whether the factors that affect Islamic banks’ dividend policy differ from the factors affecting conventional banks’ dividends.

Panel regression was run on data for six Islamic banks and six conventional banks.

The paper found that profitability, lagged dividends and leverage are all significant determinants of Islamic Banks’ dividend policy. Lintner’s (1956) model applies to Islamic bank’s dividend policy, as Islamic banks who payout dividends commit to their payments. All factors included in the study (profitability, liquidity, leverage, growth and lagged dividend) are found to be significant determinants of conventional banks’ dividend payments.

Future research should include ownership variables in the regression to test the agency theory regarding dividends. Ownership variables were not included in the study because of data availability issues.

The results of this study have practical implications for analysts, investors and regulators. For Islamic banks to compete in the local and global deposit markets, their management must carefully decide upon their dividend policy. As conventional banks are distributing stable dividends, it is time for Islamic banks to plan for a stable dividend policy to send positive signals to the market. As newcomers to the market Islamic banks should avoid spontaneous and inconsistent dividend distributions that do not carry any signals to the market. It will be difficult for Islamic banks to raise capital or attract investors because of their lower dividend yields compared to conventional banks. Boards of directors of Islamic banks should use dividends as an agency monitoring device; large-scale retention of earnings encourages behaviour by managers that does not maximize shareholder value. Dividends, then, are a valuable financial tool for these firms because they help firms avoid asset/capital structures that give managers wide discretion to make value-reducing investments.

This is the first study – up to the author’s knowledge – to investigate the financial institutions (banks) dividend policy in Saudi Arabia.

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on total productive maintenance (TPM) implementation practice to present an overview of TPM implementation practices adopted by various manufacturing organizations and suggest possible gaps from researchers and practitioner’s point of view. This study tries to identify the best strategy for improving competitiveness of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in globalized market and evaluates TPM implementation practice in SMEs.

The objective of this paper is to study the role of TPM program in context of Indian industries either from SMEs to large-scale industries. The approach has been directed toward justification of TPM implementation practice for its support to competitive manufacturing in the context of Indian manufacturing industries.

TPM implementation improves productivity and working efficiency of employees and also improves equipment effectiveness and a positive inclination toward company is registered. Therefore, equipment maintenance is an indispensable function in a manufacturing enterprise. In this highly competitive environment, manufacturing organizations should consider maintenance function as a potential source for cost savings and competitive advantage. SMEs must be considered as an engine for economic growth all over the world (Singh et al., 2008). A total of 148 papers related to TPM implementation in large-scale industries and SMEs were collected, analyzed and classified on the basis of their applications, broadly into large industry and SMEs and further divided into Indian and Non-Indian, then case study, implementation, model, literature review, maintenance, service, etc. This classification has clearly shows that SMEs are in a need to adopt TPM implementation practice to compete in this global market and changing requirements of large industries. Maintenance is an indispensable function in a manufacturing enterprise. In this highly competitive environment, manufacturing organizations must be considered maintenance function as a potential source for cost savings and competitive advantage. Singh et al. (2008) have concluded that SMEs must be considered as an engine for economic growth of all over the world. Following are the objectives of this study: to suggest a classification of available literature on TPM implementation; to identify the need of TPM implementation in SMEs; to identify critical observations on each category of classification; to identify the potential of SMEs in India; to identify emerging trends of TPM implementation in India; to suggest directions for future researchers in the field of TPM implementation on the basis of above mention points; and to consolidate all available literature on TPM implementation practice.

The challenges of stiff competition and the drive for profits are forcing the organizations to implement various productivity improvement efforts to meet the challenges posed by ever-changing market demands. In the dynamic and highly challenging environment, reliable manufacturing equipment is regarded as the major contributor to the performance and profitability of manufacturing systems.

In this dynamic world, importance of SMEs in the growth of the nation needs more attention of researchers and industrialists. After the globalization of market, SMEs have got many opportunities to work in integration with large-scale organizations. All the organizations from SMEs to large-scale industries can adopt effective and efficient maintenance strategies such as condition-based maintenance, reliability-centered maintenance and TPM over the traditional firefighting reactive maintenance approaches (Sharma et al., 2005).

In our view, this paper clearly identifies implications for research which will be useful for society. The gap discussed by authors needs to be addressed by future researchers.

This implementation strategy can help to save huge amounts of time, money and other useful resources in dealing with reliability, availability, maintainability and performance issues. On the basis of available literature, it can be understood that SMEs should change their maintenance strategies to cope up with global competition so that a lot of resources can be utilized in a better direction.

This paper examines the impact of dividend policy on stock market liquidity, and whether the dividend payouts has an asymmetric effect on stock liquidity.

A multivariate panel-data regression analysis is conducted for a sample of the largest 411 nonfinancial US firms. Three main hypothesis are tested: (1) whether dividend payouts impact affect stock liquidity, (2) whether low and high dividend payments can asymmetrically effect on stock liquidity and (3) whether the presence of the GFC has an impact the relationship between dividend payments and stock liquidity.

The study finds that dividend policy is adversely associated with stock liquidity. This supports the prediction of the liquidity-dividend hypothesis. The authors also report that stock liquidity asymmetrically responds to changes in dividend payouts, confirming the prediction of the dividend-signaling approach. More specifically, higher dividend payments decrease stock liquidity by a lower magnitude than the increase in stock liquidity resulting from lower dividend payments. Finally, the presence of the GFC weakened the relationship between dividend payments and stock liquidity.

The paper can help in performing future research by using different dataset covering the COVID-19 crisis.

The paper allows market participants to better understand the impact of dividend policy and its asymmetric effects on stock liquidity. The authors’ analyses can direct investors and regulators to adopt new supervisory devices to create an appropriate level of dividend payouts that helps to effectively support the level of stock liquidity.

The paper intends to support the business community and to make strong contributions to the economic development and the welfare of the community.

The originality comes from its new evidence as it can help in assessing the importance of dividend policy and its asymmetric impact on stock liquidity in the full sample and during the GFC. The paper is helpful in performing future analyses using a new sample period for another set of data as well as accounting for COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

In recent times, many organizations implementing total productive maintenance (TPM) have been failing in their attempts. Researchers attribute these failures to the shortcomings of TPM and of the implementing organizations. This paper aims to conduct a detailed study in order to understand these shortcomings and seeks to propose various solutions in the form of “best practices”, which leads to the development of world‐class maintenance systems (WMS). However, development of such alterative maintenance systems raises the following question: if an organization is planning to implement and improve their existing maintenance system then how can the manager make a decision between choosing alternative systems such as traditional maintenance systems, TPM and WMS? In the case of TPM or WMS, top management should be involved from the beginning to implement and follow up, as these decisions are complex and involve huge investment in the long term. Before starting implementation, top management should be convinced of the necessary justification, which requires analysis of various qualitative and quantitative factors apart from analyzing various tangible and intangible benefits. In such a situation, the conventional, financial justification techniques alone cannot be used.

The paper attempts to demonstrate the use of a multi‐attribute decision‐making (MADM) model, namely, the analytic hierarchy constant sum method (AHCSM) for justification of WMS by analyzing the performance measures of an organization.

The model showed that WMS is the best among the alternatives considered for the given circumstances. From the extensive analysis of the results from the model, implementing WMS would result in overall improvement in the performance of an organization.

The paper attempts to provide an understanding about the TPM shortcomings, WMS and its characteristics, apart from describing the proposed framework in detail. In addition to this, the AHCSM model has been developed for the justification of WMS and the algorithm for the same has been described in a step‐by‐step manner. It is believed that this MADM model will be useful for managers to supplement their strategic decisions.

According to the authors' knowledge, there has been so far no paper in the literature which has demonstrated the application of AHCSM in the field of maintenance management.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce mobile maintenance a new concept of total productive maintenance (TPM) implementation practice, especially in small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs). This study tries to introduce this new concept for SMEs in SMEs to help traditional maintenance program which is already available in particular industries.

The approach is to study the role of mobile maintenance (a part of TPM program) in context of Indian industries either from small and medium scale to large scale industries through overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).

Researchers evolutes a new maintenance concept of TPM implementation practice as mobile maintenance concept in SMEs for enhancing OEE of equipments to improve competitiveness of SMEs in a globalized market. This mobile maintenance strategy can reduce major breakdowns, setup and adjustment losses and improve productivity, product quality and OEE of equipments.

In the dynamic and highly challenging environment, reliable manufacturing equipments are regarded as the major contributor to the performance and profitability of manufacturing systems. A researcher has found that some SMEs of Banmore industrial areas is also using mobile maintenance and preventive maintenance along with traditional maintenance process and getting improvements in the maintenance process as well as machine reliability and OEE of equipments. After the globalization of market, SMEs has got many opportunities to work on integration with large-scale organizations.

It will be very benefitted for the Indian SMEs. SMEs can improve machine availability and OEE by implementing this mobile maintenance concept especially in SMEs.