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This study covers all banks listed on the Amman Stock Exchange. It used (1) dividend-paying status, dividend changes and dividend persistence to measure dividend quality, (2) a checklist instrument consisting of 40 items to measure financial disclosure quality, (3) nationality and (4) the percentage of females and males on the board of directors to measure board diversity. Hierarchical regression analysis was employed to investigate the influence of the board diversity on the relationship between financial disclosure quality and dividend quality.

This study investigates the relationship between financial disclosure quality and dividend quality among Jordanian-listed banks. Moreover, it examines the moderating effect of board diversity on the relationship between financial disclosure quality and dividend quality.

The results in this work imply that banks with high financial disclosure quality have high-quality dividends. Furthermore, nationality and females on the board of directors play a main role as moderators that influence managers' motivations toward the quality of financial disclosure practices and bank dividends. This paper shows that the boards in Jordanian banks have not changed dividend policies and tend to follow a long-term fixed strategy for paying earnings.

Because of the limited number of practical research on the nexus between financial disclosure quality and dividends quality, this study fills a gap in the literature by examining the relationship between them. In addition, a lack of research exists on the effects of board diversity on the nexus of financial disclosure quality and dividends quality. Therefore, this study makes an original contribution to the literature by using nationality and females and males on the board of directors as moderating variables to investigate the effects of board diversity on the relationship between financial disclosure quality and dividend quality among Jordanian banks.

The analyses of civil–military relations during public health emergencies are traditionally confined to applications in international and humanitarian action related to conflict and disaster. The expansive global response to the COVID-19 pandemic fused health and national security issues, and such a response involved extensive collaboration between the military and civil sectors. The expanded scope and centrality of the military in government pandemic response have been noted globally, and Southeast Asia presented interesting developments. This study investigates how the pandemic affected civil–military relations in the region by looking at the cases of the Philippines and Malaysia. First, it assesses the extent to which the pandemic has been framed within the security language through war analogies that rationalised military response. Second, it investigates the roles of the military in the respective governments’ public health emergency response, providing clues on how the increased military intervention affected people’s trust and confidence in public institutions during the pandemic. The study finds that securitising the pandemic correlated to expanding the military’s power and scope in the government response, but notes that civil–military relations remained dependent on the historical roles of the armed forces in politics and society. The two countries have similarly framed the pandemic as a security threat, but the military’s participation in Malaysia’s response shows development opportunities, while the case of the Philippines reveals how a military-centric pandemic response could lead to deleterious effects.

In recent times, mobile banking has become the best alternative for transactions associated with payments like bills, fees, and peer-to-peer payments. Therefore, the pace of adoption is increasing day after other. However, the numbers of customers are not equal to the expectations as there are several challenges and threats hindering in the way of excellence and growth of mobile banking. Therefore, this chapter has been written purposively to address all the elements that are associated with the use of mobile banking with special emphasis on Pakistan and other developing sides of Asia. In fact, concern towards Asian sides is mandatory as the continent has the massive charm to attract users towards the use of mobile banking, but there is a need for proper policy and concern from stakeholders in order to give a push to the technology, which is fruitful for society, environment, as well as economy. The study includes an in-depth discussion on factors that need attention to make the study implicative and thorough for conducting further research in the field of Fin-Tech and mobile banking.

Budget hotels are becoming an emerging industry for convenience and affordability, where consumer sentiments are of paramount importance. Tourism has become increasingly dependent on social media and online platforms to gather travel-related information, purchase travel products, food, lodging, etc., and share views and experiences. The user-generated data helps companies make informed decisions through predictive and behavioural analytics.

Design/Methodology/Approach: This study uses text mining, deep learning, and machine learning techniques for data collection and sentiment analysis based on 117,151 online reviews of the customers posted on the TripAdvisor website from May 2004 to May 2019 from 197 hotels of five prominent budget hotel groups spread across India using Feedforward Neural Network along with Keras package and Softmax activation function.

Findings: The word-of-mouth turns into electronic word-of-mouth through social networking sites, with easy access to information that enables customers to pick a budget hotel. We identified 20 widely used words that most customers use in their reviews, which can help managers optimise operational efficiency by boosting consumer acceptability, satisfaction, positive experiences, and overcoming negative consumer perceptions.

Practical Implications: The analysis of the review patterns is based on real-time data, which is helpful to understand the customer’s requirements, particularly for budget hotels.

Originality/Value: We analysed TripAdvisor reviews posted over the last 16 years, excluding the Corona period due to industry crises. The findings reverberate in consonance with the performance improvement theory, which states feed-forward a neural network enhances organisational, process, and individual-level performance in the hospitality industry based on customer reviews.

This study aims to document the hypogea churches in Lay Gayint Woreda, South Gondar, to provide information for future tourism development practices and serve as insurance against loss of value due to unmanaged deteriorative factors.

The study followed a descriptive research design with qualitative research approach. Data were collected through field observations, interviews and written sources examination.

The study explored the lesser-known hypogea churches, which have significant tourist attraction values, including environmental, historical and architectural significance. However, the use of these potential cultural resources for tourism development is not yet attempted, and their conservation status is found to be critical. This documentation work is significant both for the sake of future tourism development plans and as insurance against looming cultural losses.

This study did not record the ancient treasures of the churches because of the current political instabilities that hindered the access of data. However, it has implication for the need of an extensive documentation activity to trace the cultural resources in the remote areas of the country for future tourism development and conservation practices.

This paper documented the remote hypogea churches not only for the purpose of future tourism development plan but also as an insurance of their values against unmanaged destructive factors.

In this chapter, to explore the past and understand the present scenario in financial market, a comprehensive literature review (LR) is performed, in which 809 articles from the database of Scopus for the last 10 years are extracted and analyzed using VOSviewer software for bibliometric analysis. Citation analysis of the popular identified factors is highlighted that will help the future researchers to focus on the identified popular factors for research in the financial market. The chapter also presents a conceptual model of financial market, to uncover the future of financial markets.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009 (MACC Act) has introduced Section 17 A, which holds companies and their management accountable for bribery committed by their Associated Persons in the interest of the company. This study aims to explore the evolving concept of Associated Persons and corporate liability within this legal framework. It delves into three primary legal models of Associated Persons, particularly focusing on corrupt cases falling under Sections 17 A (1), 17 A (6) and 17 A (7) of the MACC Act. The study also investigates the extent of Associated Persons’ involvement in these cases that eventually led to company liability.

The study deployed thematic and comparative analyses to assess the legal framework and highlight the significance of Section 17 A of the MACC Act.

The study disclosed that, despite having corruption policies, there is still a possibility for Associated Persons to engage in corrupt activities. To ensure long-term business sustainability, it is crucial to implement effective mechanisms and a strong compliance culture.

This study suggests implementing a due diligence checklist and conducting risk assessments for companies as measures against corruption caused by Associated Persons. Corporate entities and legal professionals may benefit from the reported findings to better comprehend the corruption offences outlined in Section 17 A of the MACC Act.

This paper aims to adopt a comparative method using case law, statutes and secondary literature across both jurisdictions. This paper also draws on various theories of property ownership.

This paper conceptualises the legal relations embedded within condominium housing and the various theories of property ownership to ascertain how children’s interest fit within this framework. The laws of two jurisdictions, New South Wales and Singapore, are examined to determine how their strata law responds when children’s safety is at stake.

Drawing on pluralist moral theories of property law, the thesis advanced is that children’s issues within condominiums should not be subject to majoritarian rule especially when their safety is at stake. The paramount guiding value should be ensuring their safety within multi-owned housing communities. Using the law of two jurisdictions, New South Wales and Singapore, the central argument of this paper is that the law in these jurisdictions has rightfully adopted a protective approach towards children in multi-owned properties where their safety is at stake.

The literature on the law of multi-owned housing has largely focused on governance issues such as mediating between the majority owners’ interest with that of the minority owners’ interest. Children in multi-owned developments remain an under investigated area as children’s interests do not fit within the paradigm of majority versus minority interests. The paper advances the argument that children’s interest should be viewed through either a rights-based theory or pluralists’ theories of property law. Lessons from the New South Wales and Singapore experience are also drawn which might prove useful to other jurisdictions.

Petroleum companies have various goals in light of high energy prices, uncertainty and potential fluctuations in demand in the current digital age, including making a profit while maintaining long-term sustainability and lowering their environmental impacts. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of technology management (TM) and its practices through process and maintenance technologies on sustainability performance (SP) for petroleum refineries and petrochemical companies in terms of economic, environmental and social sustainability.

A new proposed framework has been developed for a clearer understanding in relation to these aspects. The study was conducted among Egyptian refineries and petrochemical companies. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 65 petroleum experts and professionals, which was then summarized using statistical analysis, hypothesis testing and regression analysis.

The findings demonstrate that TM has a significant and direct impact on SP. Furthermore, the study shows that process technology (PT) has a positive influence on the three aspects of SP. Although maintenance technology has a positive impact on economic and environmental sustainability, it shows no direct effect on social sustainability.

The degree to which TM and sustainability principles are implemented across petroleum companies in various countries varies significantly because of managerial and cultural dimensions. Therefore, when conducting the research, it is important to consider the study’s geographical area to comprehend how these practices are impacted by the distinctive managerial and cultural settings of each country. Also, respondents in developing countries do not participate in such surveys with much enthusiasm.

The study shows that implementing TM practices generates more economic stability and ensures environmental and social sustainability. The research studied how PT and maintenance practices affected each aspect of sustainability. These findings can apply to all downstream oil companies, regardless of their size or type of operations. Further research can be conducted to examine the relationship between variables in other industries.

Decision-makers and managers may use the study's findings to improve their companies' performance and develop new plans and policies. The results demonstrate that companies will have a greater chance of achieving sustainable performance if they incorporate process and maintenance technologies into their activities. Besides economic and environmental sustainability, petroleum companies must strive for social sustainability.

The study is regarded as a significant contribution to the management of petroleum refineries and petrochemical companies, as it combined TM practices with SP in a single research framework. Industry executives and researchers can use this research as a guide that can be applied to all petroleum companies in the same country.

This article aims to systematically review the literature published in recognized journals focused on cognitive heuristic-driven biases and their effect on investment management activities and market efficiency. It also includes some of the research work on the origins and foundations of behavioral finance, and how this has grown substantially to become an established and particular subject of study in its own right. The study also aims to provide future direction to the researchers working in this field.

For doing research synthesis, a systematic literature review (SLR) approach was applied considering research studies published within the time period, i.e. 1970–2021. This study attempted to accomplish a critical review of 176 studies out of 256 studies identified, which were published in reputable journals to synthesize the existing literature in the behavioral finance domain-related explicitly to cognitive heuristic-driven biases and their effect on investment management activities and market efficiency as well as on the origins and foundations of behavioral finance.

This review reveals that investors often use cognitive heuristics to reduce the risk of losses in uncertain situations, but that leads to errors in judgment; as a result, investors make irrational decisions, which may cause the market to overreact or underreact – in both situations, the market becomes inefficient. Overall, the literature demonstrates that there is currently no consensus on the usefulness of cognitive heuristics in the context of investment management activities and market efficiency. Therefore, a lack of consensus about this topic suggests that further studies may bring relevant contributions to the literature. Based on the gaps analysis, three major categories of gaps, namely theoretical and methodological gaps, and contextual gaps, are found, where research is needed.

The skillful understanding and knowledge of the cognitive heuristic-driven biases will help the investors, financial institutions and policymakers to overcome the adverse effect of these behavioral biases in the stock market. This article provides a detailed explanation of cognitive heuristic-driven biases and their influence on investment management activities and market efficiency, which could be very useful for finance practitioners, such as an investor who plays at the stock exchange, a portfolio manager, a financial strategist/advisor in an investment firm, a financial planner, an investment banker, a trader/broker at the stock exchange or a financial analyst. But most importantly, the term also includes all those persons who manage corporate entities and are responsible for making their financial management strategies.

Currently, no recent study exists, which reviews and evaluates the empirical research on cognitive heuristic-driven biases displayed by investors. The current study is original in discussing the role of cognitive heuristic-driven biases in investment management activities and market efficiency as well as the history and foundations of behavioral finance by means of research synthesis. This paper is useful to researchers, academicians, policymakers and those working in the area of behavioral finance in understanding the role that cognitive heuristic plays in investment management activities and market efficiency.