Search results

This study aimed at exploring the differential effects of different corporate governance (CG) indicators on risk management practices in Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) and conventional financial institutions (CFIs) of Pakistan. It also investigated the moderating role of institutional quality (IQ) in shaping the effects of CG practices on financial institutions of Pakistan.

A sample of 57 financial institutions including commercial banks, insurance companies and Modarba companies over the period 2006–2017 is used to carry out the empirical analysis. The authors applied the robust two-step system-generalized method of moments estimator, which is also called the dynamic panel data estimator. They also built the PCA-based composite index of CG and IQ by using different indicators to investigate the moderating role of IQ. They used three proxies for risk taking, five for CG and one for Shari’ah governance. To test the validity of the instruments, they applied the Arellano and Bond’s (1991) AR (1) and AR (2) tests and the J-statistic of Hansen (1982).

The results provided strong evidence that several individual characteristics of CG and the composite index are significantly related to the operational risk, the liquidity risk and the Z-score (a proxy for solvency risk). The results also revealed that IQ significantly and substantially contributes in reducing the level of risks. Finally, the estimation results indicated that the effects of CG on risk management are significantly different at IFIs and CFIs. This differential impact is mainly attributed to the fundamental differences in business models, operational strategies and contractual obligations of both types of institutions.

The findings of this study are important for enhancing our understanding of how CG relates to risk taking in Islamic and conventional financial services industries and how good quality institutions are important for formulating the governance effects on the risk-taking behavior of financial institutions. The findings suggest that a suitable size of board should be chosen to manage the risk effectively. As the findings show that the risk-taking behavior of IFIs differs from that of CFIs, the regulators and international standard setting bodies should tailor the regulatory frameworks accordingly.

This paper is different from the existing studies in four aspects. First, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical investigation in Pakistan, which does the comparison of IFIs and CFIs while examining the impacts of CG on risk management. Second, the paper constructs the composite index of CG by considering several different indicators of governance and examines the combined effect of governance indicators on risk management process. Third, this paper adds to the growing literature on the role of IQ by investigating whether it acts as a moderator between CG structures and risk management and if yes, then whether this moderating role is different for IFIs and CFIs. Finally, the paper builds upon the existing research work on the CG effects for different types of financial institutions by proposing a single regression based analytical framework for comparing the effects across two different types of institutions, harvesting the benefits of higher degrees of freedom and avoiding/minimizing the measurement error.

This paper aims to investigate the determinants that contribute to the financial stability and banking sector of Palestinian banks listed on the Palestine Stock Exchange (PEX) by using yearly data for the years 2012–2022.

Pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) and two-stage least squares (2SLS) were used to identify the variables and factors affecting the financial stability and banking sector of Palestinian banks. The study’s data were collected from the banks listed on PEX and from the yearly reports posted on the Palestine Monetary Authority’s (PMA) webpage over the years from 2012–2022. According to this research’s analysis, SMEs loans and capital sufficiency have a statistically significant positive impact on the stability of Palestinian banks. Unobserved heterogeneity, simultaneity and dynamic endogeneity are taken into account when using the 2SLS regression approach to adjust for the study endogeneity factor.

The study’s findings show that some factors and determinants might have both good and negative effects on financial stability and banking sector. Loans to small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) and enough capital are two characteristics that statistically have a major favourable impact on the stability of Palestinian banks since they help the banks withstand deficits. A further potential discovery relates to the favourable effects of financial inclusion (FI) and digital financial services (DFS) on the stability of banks.

This research has faced some limitations, such as the lack of a defined index from the regulatory organizations, this research is based on information from bank annual accounts. It has mostly relied on self-developed or World Bank indexes. Furthermore, the research solely used information from the supply side (banks); demand-side data were not taken into consideration.

This paper has managerial implications for stability of banking sector. The Palestine Monetary Authority, as the central bank, must increase the percentage of bank loans directed to small and medium-sized companies and oblige bank management to adhere to adequate capital standards, which contributes to strengthening the Palestinian banking sector and increasing its profits. The study findings advise banks that are enjoying financial stability to speed up the pace of FI and DFSs because most of these reliable banks have relatively low FI ratios. PMA is responsible for preserving the stability of the financial system. PMA, decision makers and banks management must retain adequate liquidity in their institutions and raise client collateral expectations to raise credit conditions.

This paper adds some contributions to the literature. To adjust for discrepancies between various types of banks, the authors concentrate on conventional and Islamic banks, which enables us to use a homogenous data set as opposed to depending on dichotomous variables. The authors used Z-scores, which have recently been used in research, to measure stability and FI at the level of specific institutions. This research contributes in some key aspects that no prior research has addressed. Conventional banks are different from Islamic banks, and a number of issues might impact their stability. To evaluate the connection between FI and DFSs, it is important to consider the actions of bank regulators.

In recent years, the frequency and severity of cybersecurity incidents have prompted customers to seek out specialized insurance products. However, this has also presented insurers with operational challenges and increased costs. The assessment of risks for health systems and cyber–physical systems (CPS) necessitates a heightened degree of attention. The significant values of potential damages and claims request a solid insurance system, part of cyber-resilience. This research paper focuses on the emerging cyber insurance market that is currently in the process of standardizing and improving its risk analysis concerning the potential insured entity.

The authors' approach involves a quantitative analysis utilizing a Likert-style questionnaire designed to survey cyber insurance professionals. The authors' aim is to identify the current methods used in gathering information from potential clients, as well as the manner in which this information is analyzed by the insurers. Additionally, the authors gather insights on potential improvements that could be made to this process.

The study the authors elaborated it has a particularly important cyber and risk components for insurance area, because it addresses a “niche” area not yet proper addressed in specialized literature – cyber insurance. Cyber risk management approaches are not uniform at the international level, nor at the insurer level. Also, not all insurers can perform solid assessments, especially since their companies should first prove that they are fully compliant with international cyber security standards.

This research has concentrated on analyzing the current practices in terms of gathering information about the insured entity before issuing the cyber insurance policy, level of details concerning the cyber security posture of the insured entity and way such information should be analyzed in a standardized and useful manner. The novelty of this research resides in the analysis performed as detailed above and the proposals in terms of information gathered, depth of analysis and standardization of approach made. Future work on the topic can focus on the standardization process for analyzing cyber risk for insurance clients, to improve the proposal based also on historical elements and trends in the market. Thus, future research can further refine the standardization process to analyze in more depth the way this can be implemented and included in relevant legislation at the EU level.

Proposed improvements include proposals in terms of the level of detail and the usefulness of an independent centralized approach for information gathering and analysis, especially given the re-insurance and brokerage activities. The authors also propose a common practical procedural approach in risk management, with the involvement of insurance companies and certification institutions of cyber security auditors.

The study investigates the information gathered by insurers from potential clients of cyber insurance and the way this is analyzed and updated for issuance of the insurance policy.

The interview traces the early discussions in the context of disasters as developmental failures.

The transcript and video was developed in the context of a United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) project on the history of DRR.

The interview traces the development of disaster risk reduction discussions in different contexts such as “LA RED” network in Latin America.

The interview clearly highlights the need to not forget the early thoughts on vulnerability and disaster risk.

This study aims to explore the relationship between firm risk, capital structure, cost of equity capital and social and environmental sustainability during the COVID-19 pandemic for companies listed on Tehran Stock Exchange.

To this aim, the information about 190 companies in 2014–2020 was retrieved to be analyzed. The total risk and systematic risk were used as the indicators of company risk; the industry-adjusted earnings price ratio (IndEP) and GORDON were used for the cost of equity capital. To measure social sustainability and environmental sustainability, the procedure suggested by Arianpoor and Salehi (2020) was used.

Underleveraged firms have had a lower total risk during the COVID-19 pandemic, while overleveraged firms have not had a higher risk during this time. In overleveraged firms, using systematic risk has a negative impact on social sustainability during the COVID-19 pandemic. In overleveraged firms, using total risk and systematic risk has a significant negative impact on environmental sustainability in the pandemic. Besides, overleveraged firms have a lower cost of equity capital (IndEP) during COVID-19.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no similar study has so far examined the joint impact of COVID-19 and corporate risk on social and environmental sustainability and also the joint impact of COVID-19 and capital structure on the cost of equity. This study contributes to the related literature by providing corporations with insightful post-pandemic directions on capital structure decisions and social and environmental activities. Furthermore, this research and the relevant findings can help understand and develop social responsibility in Iran as a developing country.

This paper aims to propose a new method to derive custom dynamic cyber risk metrics based on the well-known Goal, Question, Metric (GQM) approach. A framework that complements it and makes it much easier to use has been proposed too. Both, the method and the framework, have been validated within two challenging application domains: continuous risk assessment within a smart farm and risk-based adaptive security to reconfigure a Web application firewall.

The authors have identified a problem and provided motivation. They have developed their theory and engineered a new method and a framework to complement it. They have demonstrated the proposed method and framework work, validating them in two real use cases.

The GQM method, often applied within the software quality field, is a good basis for proposing a method to define new tailored cyber risk metrics that meet the requirements of current application domains. A comprehensive framework that formalises possible goals and questions translated to potential measurements can greatly facilitate the use of this method.

The proposed method enables the application of the GQM approach to cyber risk measurement. The proposed framework allows new cyber risk metrics to be inferred by choosing between suggested goals and questions and measuring the relevant elements of probability and impact. The authors’ approach demonstrates to be generic and flexible enough to allow very different organisations with heterogeneous requirements to derive tailored metrics useful for their particular risk management processes.

A large number of organisations are moving towards adopting Industry 4.0 (I4.0), and simultaneously, the emphasis on attaining sustainability development goals is also increasing. Hence, it is imperative to understand the interplay between I4.0 and sustainability. However, the literature addressing the same is still in infancy. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to fill this gap in the literature by exploring the potential sustainability impacts of I4.0 on the organisations and society in terms of sustainability risks.

To gain an understanding of sustainability aspects in the I4.0 context, relevant literature is gathered using Scopus and Web-of-Science database. An in-depth review of 51 research papers is performed to determine the sustainability risks associated with I4.0.

From the study, a total of 16 sustainability risks are identified, and I4.0 sustainability risk taxonomy is developed. The proposed taxonomy extends the sustainability implications of I4.0 beyond the triple bottom line umbrella and includes the organisational perspective as well. Furthermore, the study provides future research avenues to scholars by positing five potential research questions under different risk management stages.

The study provides an understanding of sustainability risks associated with the adoption of I4.0. The findings will help practitioners streamline their production and operation processes by finding out possible solution to the sustainability risks of their smart factories in advance. The present research will act as a stepping stone towards I4.0 sustainability. The proposed research questions will assist the future researchers in extending the field of I4.0.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to address the topic of sustainability risks in the context of I4.0.