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1 – 10 of 29Michael Barr, Ilina Singh and Nikolas Rose
Depressive disorders are a focus of growing social and economic concern. While antidepressant medications are widely accepted, they are ineffective for nearly 40% of users, and…
Abstract
Depressive disorders are a focus of growing social and economic concern. While antidepressant medications are widely accepted, they are ineffective for nearly 40% of users, and cause numerous adverse drug reactions. The pharmacogenomics of depression attempts to better understand the role of genetic variation in antidepressant metabolism in the hope of improving drug efficacy and tolerability. However, the development and delivery of genome‐based antidepressants face many hurdles. In this paper we provide an overview of the potential impact of the pharmacogenomics of depression on public mental health care by focusing on the social and ethical issues at stake. These include questions about genetic testing, informed consent, drug access, and market fragmentation. We end the paper with a brief discussion of the wider context and how the pharmacogenomics of depression relates to broader trends in psychiatry and biomedicine.
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Risk factors for population relocation as a result of severe catastrophes are increasing on a global scale. The frequency of catastrophic weather events is rising, infrastructure…
Abstract
Risk factors for population relocation as a result of severe catastrophes are increasing on a global scale. The frequency of catastrophic weather events is rising, infrastructure is getting older, the population is expanding, and urbanization is increasing. This study explores the influencing factors of livelihood, vulnerability, and livelihood resilience of climate-induced displaced people in developing countries, particularly in South Asia. A mixed-method approach comprising a systematic review and a narrative review has been applied in this study. A systematic review guided by PRISMA has been used to identify the relevant documents and the extracted information has been described through a narrative review approach. This study reveals that climate-induced displaced people are generally vulnerable to maintaining their livelihood, but there are a few exceptional cases where displaced people could diversify their livelihood strategies. The major influencing factors of their livelihoods are riverbank erosion, loss of assets and properties, food insecurity, seasonal hunger, low access to finance, and low job opportunity. This study argues that climate-displaced people have a long struggle to enhance their livelihood resilience, but it is a challenging task for them, particularly at the household level. The major influencing indicators under adaptive, absorptive, and transformative capacities of livelihood resilience are income and food access, agricultural and non-agricultural assets, sensitivity, climate variability and hazards, basic services, social safety nets, and institutional participation. Appropriate governance in the structural and non-structural transformation of livelihood capitals can enhance the livelihood resilience of climate-induced displaced households. In the case of Bangladesh, the coastal and Riverine Island communities are the key victims of climate-induced hazards, so they migrated frequently to reduce their vulnerability and enhance livelihood resilience. The study recommends ensuring transparency and accountability, proper coordination among stakeholders for promoting the resettlement, disaster-resilient housing and infrastructure, and Khas land (government-owned land) to the displaced people can enhance their livelihood resilience.
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Irina Berezinets, Yulia Ilina and Anna Cherkasskaya
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the link between board structure and performance of public companies in Russia – an emerging market with unique institutional…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the link between board structure and performance of public companies in Russia – an emerging market with unique institutional background and a variability of corporate governance (CG) practices across its companies.
Design/methodology/approach
Panel data analysis was applied on a sample of 207 Russian companies that frequently traded in the Russian Trading System during the period 2007-2011, in order to test hypotheses on the relationships between board size, board independence, gender diversity, presence of board committees and financial performance, as measured by Tobin’s Q.
Findings
The results show a positive relationship between Tobin’s Q and the board’s gender diversity. The analysis demonstrates that smaller and bigger boards are associated with a greater Tobin’s Q value.
Originality/value
The findings provide additional evidence of how board structure is related to its effectiveness and corporate performance in countries with concentrated ownership, highly variable CG practices and a lack of proper implementation of corporate law and governance codes. The paper contributes to the existing empirical evidence on the advantages of small and large-sized boards and on gender diversity, and is the first investigating the relationship between Russian companies’ board committees and market-based performance. The results regarding board independence and committees suggest that these mechanisms are still not widely recognized for their role in CG and company performance in Russia.
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Sushil Chandra and Suman Pasari
In order to obtain desired film properties, alkyd resins are frequently modified by other resins and polymers either by physically blending them or chemically incorporating them…
Abstract
In order to obtain desired film properties, alkyd resins are frequently modified by other resins and polymers either by physically blending them or chemically incorporating them. Some of the recent physical modifications of alkyd have already been described in the first part of the article. In this second part, the different types of resins and polymers used for the chemical modifications of alkyd resin are reviewed. A critical discussion on generally recognised advantages and disadvantages of the resultant coating from each modifier is described. Their use in surface coating industry are enumerated. Types of modifier to be used for improving a particular property in the coating are also suggested.
The purpose of this study is to explore the antecedents and their impacts on behaviors toward agro-tourism by proposing a theory of green consumption behavior.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the antecedents and their impacts on behaviors toward agro-tourism by proposing a theory of green consumption behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a review of the literatures and collection of 471 usable responses, the study is conducted through partial least squares structural equation modeling method using SmartPLS 3.3.3.
Findings
Findings of the study have revealed that carbon mitigation attitude, energy saving norms, perceived hygiene value and agro-tourist spot visit intentions significantly influence agro-tourist spot visit behavior. Furthermore, the study has suggested that agro-tourist spot visit intentions partially mediate the strength of the relationship between carbon mitigation attitude, energy saving norms, perceived hygiene value and agro-tourist spot visit behavior.
Practical implications
The study findings may be useful to encouraging agro-tourism managers of understanding antecedents of customer’s behavior and formulating business strategies influencing behaviors toward agro-tourism, coping with competitive business environment and environmental sustainability.
Originality/value
The study has presented a unique case discovering what antecedents are influencing customers’ green consumption behavior (agro-tourist spot visit behaviors) and how that behavior contributes to sustainable communities and cities development. Furthermore, the study has provided important insights for industry professionals by integrating carbon mitigation attitude, energy saving norms, perceived hygiene value and agro-tourist spot visit intentions in examining agro-tourist spot visit behavior.
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Dharini Ramachandran and Parvathi Ramasubramanian
“What’s happening?” around you can be spread through the very pronounced social media to everybody. It provides a powerful platform that brings to light the latest news, trends…
Abstract
Purpose
“What’s happening?” around you can be spread through the very pronounced social media to everybody. It provides a powerful platform that brings to light the latest news, trends and happenings around the world in “near instant” time. Microblog is a popular Web service that enables users to post small pieces of digital content, such as text, picture, video and link to external resource. The raw data from microblog prove indispensable in extracting information from it, offering a way to single out the physical events and popular topics prevalent in social media. This study aims to present and review the varied methods carried out for event detection from microblogs. An event is an activity or action with a clear finite duration in which the target entity plays a key role. Event detection helps in the timely understanding of people’s opinion and actual condition of the detected events.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents a study of various approaches adopted for event detection from microblogs. The approaches are reviewed according to the techniques used, applications and the element detected (event or topic).
Findings
Various ideas explored, important observations inferred, corresponding outcomes and assessment of results from those approaches are discussed.
Originality/value
The approaches and techniques for event detection are studied in two categories: first, based on the kind of event being detected (physical occurrence or emerging/popular topic) and second, within each category, the approaches further categorized into supervised- and unsupervised-based techniques.
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Shubham Singhania, Jagvinder Singh and Deepti Aggrawal
This study aims to highlight the impact of introducing women directors to board committees, thereby empowering them to contribute to decision-making, and as a result, influence…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to highlight the impact of introducing women directors to board committees, thereby empowering them to contribute to decision-making, and as a result, influence firms’ financial performance in an emerging economy.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a fixed-effects panel data regression model to test the impact of gender diversity on corporate boards as well as board committees on firms’ financial performance. Two widely used diversity measures, the Blau index and the Shannon index, have been used to enhance the robustness of the results.
Findings
The findings suggest that gender diversity on prominent board committees (remuneration committee and nomination committee) positively affects firms’ financial performance when measured by the market-based performance measure, but it is insignificant when measured through accounting-based performance indicator. Furthermore, the benefits of gender diversity accrue to the firms only when women are part of prominent committees and are engaged in governance mechanisms, rather than just being appointed on corporate boards as a means of tokenism.
Originality/value
This study is among the first to investigate the relationship between gender diversity and financial performance through the lens of committee assignments. Moreover, the unique cultural and institutional setting offered by India, which is an emerging economy, provides a fertile ground for understanding the role of women leaders in the workforce.
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This study aimed to explore the adaptations and perspectives of hotel managers regarding green and smart hotel technologies within the context of sustainability.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed to explore the adaptations and perspectives of hotel managers regarding green and smart hotel technologies within the context of sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
A comprehensive literature review guided the formulation of this study, followed by face-to-face, semi-structured interviews with hotel managers. A total of 17 prepared questions were finalized after examination by two expert academicians. The responses were analyzed using qualitative research methodology and the results were weighted using the step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) method.
Findings
Interviews with sustainability and operational managers yielded insights into environmentally friendly practices and strategies such as reducing energy and water consumption, waste and chemical reduction, supporting local entrepreneurs and adopting smart technologies. These factors are crucial in eco-friendly hotels. According to the SWARA analysis, 'reducing energy consumption' is the most effective criterion.
Research limitations/implications
This study offers insights into green and smart hotel management by focusing on the perspectives of hotel managers with a small sample. In future studies, research with larger samples on customer perspectives and the effect of hotel selection is recommended.
Practical implications
This study offers insights to hotel managers on energy conservation and customer satisfaction enhancement through green and technological applications. These technological applications can improve hotel service quality and provide personalized experiences, fostering customer loyalty.
Originality/value
This pioneering study focuses on the intersection of green and smart practices in hospitality. By intertwining the often separately discussed concepts of “green” and “smart,” this study presents a novel approach to the sustainability practices in the hospitality industry, holding a key position, especially in Turkey. Implementing these concepts can yield environmental and economic benefits, offering invaluable insights to hotel managers and policymakers into integrating smart technologies with sustainability.
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the significance of board gender diversity (BGD) on the firm's intellectual capital (IC) performance of 272 Indian firms listed on the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the significance of board gender diversity (BGD) on the firm's intellectual capital (IC) performance of 272 Indian firms listed on the National Stock Exchange during 2007–2019. Considering the recent regulatory amendment by the Indian regulatory system (Security Exchange Board of India, 2018) which mandates at least one female independent directors on boards of all listed companies.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on theories and literature reviews, hypotheses were developed. This paper uses the proportion of female director on board and proportion of female independent directors to measure BGD and modified value-added intellectual coefficient (MVAIC) methodology to measure firms' IC performance. Two-step system-generalised method of moment panel data regression analysis has been employed to identify the variables that significantly affect IC performance.
Findings
This paper finds female representation on boards has a significant impact on MVAIC; capital employed efficiency shows the strongest association with female directors on board, followed by structural capital efficiency and human capital efficiency, while relational capital efficiency shows no significant effect. The results further demonstrate that female independent director has a significant but negative impact on IC.
Research limitations/implications
As the study is limited to the listed firms of an emerging economy with a mandatory female quota for boards. Thus to increase the generalizability of findings, future research can be extended to include all listed and non-listed firms from another emerging economy with a mandatory female quota.
Practical implications
From the practical perspective, this study bridges the gap between theory and practice in terms of providing a deeper understanding to the policymakers and Indian regulatory bodies like the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and Securities Exchange Board on the importance of including female members on board as a vital contributing factor for leveraging firm's intangible performance.
Originality/value
Using resource dependency theory and agency, this study extends the literature on IC efficiency and female representation on boards by presenting the research outcome for Indian listed firms. This paper, addressing the recent changes introduced by Indian regulators and using the female independent directors on board, is amongst the first attempts to assess the relevance of BGD and IC performance. This issue has still not been discussed and analysed by researchers in India.
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Johana Sierra-Morán, Laura Cabeza-García and Nuria González-Álvarez
Although the literature on corporate governance and firm innovation finds that board independence is important, this paper proposes that the presence of independent directors…
Abstract
Purpose
Although the literature on corporate governance and firm innovation finds that board independence is important, this paper proposes that the presence of independent directors alone is not enough to explain their impact on firm innovation. This study analyses if diversity among independent directors may affect the relationship between board independence and firm innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
A panel data on a sample of 124 Spanish listed companies for the period 2008–2019 used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
Results suggest that independent directors have a negative effect on firm innovation, measured as number of patents, but when there are high levels of gender and nationality diversity among such directors, this negative effect may be mitigated.
Originality/value
Considering that firm innovation is a complex process associated with decision-making and that board independence itself may be not enough, this study goes a step further and delves deeper into the characteristics of independent directors. As far as is known, this paper is the first theoretical and empirical study that considers that independent director diversity as a moderating variable between board independence and firm innovation. Besides, this research contributes to the debate on the role of independent directors in firm innovation and the results may also serve as a guideline for policy makers and firms for structuring boards that are pro-innovation.
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