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Islamic banks have significantly different balance sheets from their conventional counterparts, leading to different implications in relation to liquidity creation compared to conventional banks. This work, first, investigates the liquidity creation of conventional and Islamic banks in Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries between 2011 and 2016. It then tests the relationship between liquidity creation and performance of these banks.

It uses the data of 491 commercial banks across 18 MENA countries between 2011 and 2016. The analysis is based on panel data techniques.

The banks created US$18.596 trillion of liquidity, about 28.4% of total assets. Conventional banks created more liquidity compared with Islamic banks. Nevertheless, Islamic banks created more liquidity per asset compared with conventional banks. The regression analysis revealed a significant and negative correlation between liquidity creation and performance of the banks using return on average equity (ROAE) measure. However, no significant relationship is observed between liquidity creation and return on average assets (ROAA) of MENA banks. Moreover, there is no difference between Islamic and conventional banks in the relation between liquidity creation and bank performance.

The data are limited to the period 2011-2016; the period of this study was selected based on yearly data availability from the data source. Accounting measures were used to study the effect of liquidity creation on bank profitability, and the market-based measures were excluded, as there is no uniform sources in these countries that can be used to collect market-based data.

Bank managers must reach a trade-off between the advantages and disadvantages of liquidity creation, as well as consider the negative relationship between liquidity creation and bank performance when making their decisions.

First, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work is the first to analyse the relationship between the liquidity creation and performance of conventional and Islamic banks in MENA. Second, this study uses a sample of Islamic and conventional banks in MENA that have detailed information on the Orbis Bank Focus dataset, which is the most comprehensive database of commercial banks in the MENA region.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the value relevance of Research and development (R&D) and free cash flow (FCF) in an efficient investment setup. Most importantly, this paper examines whether the value relevance of R&D and FCF is associated with life cycle stages. Furthermore, this paper reports whether the market response to R&D and FCF is different in competitive market as compared to the concentrated market.

The analysis is based on the Ohlson (1995) model for the determination of value relevance of earnings and book value. Capitalized R&D and FCF data comprising of the Chinese A-listed firms from the year 2008 to 2016 are selected for this study. Following Anthony and Ramesh (1992), the authors divided the firm life cycle into different stages. HHI index is used to measure the product market competition.

The main result shows that R&D and FCF are value relevant in Chinese A-listed firms. The impact of R&D and FCF on the value relevance of earnings and book value is also positive and significant. The findings of the effect of R&D and FCF on the value relevance of accounting information signify that the information content (R²=0.46) of the mature stage is higher than that of the growth and stagnant stage. The explanatory power measured by R² value for competitive industries (0.47) is much higher than the concentrated industries (0.33).

Despite taking into account all the possible available variables, there are few limitations of the study. This study only studies the effect of EPS, BPS, R&D and FCF on the value relevance of accounting information. Other determinant such as size, growth, leverage and firm age is ignored. Since the R&D expenditure is discretionary, therefore the findings cannot be generalized to all the sectors. A sector wise comparative study can be done in future, to understand the differences in the information contents of R&D and FCF. Also, the tax effect of R&D is ignored in this study. For future call, the value relevance of tax effect on R&D can be explored.

The investors can now determine the present value of all the future cash flows of investing activities. The results of the study are significant for the Chinese investors who should incorporate the R&D and FCF along with investment efficiency. The investors should keep in mind the life cycle stage while investing in a certain stock. The competitive markets have more information content than the concentrated markets. The corporate managers can benefit from this study while issuing new shares. The market responds positively to the stock having investment efficient R&D and FCF investment. For the policy implication perspective, the security market regulator should devise the effective pro-effective product market regulations.

The contribution of this study is manifold. First, according to the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that incorporates investment efficiency with R&D and FCF and explores its effect on the value relevance of accounting information. Second, the impact of R&D on the value relevance is studied by numerous researchers (Lev and Sougiannis, 1996; Han and Manry, 2004). Similarly, FCF-agency cost effect has also been investigated by (Rahman and Mohd-Saleh, 2008; Chen et al., 2012) but the value relevance of R&D and FCF during different life cycle stages still needs to be answered. Finally, this study also tries to answers the question if the market response to R&D and FCF is different in a competitive market as compared to the concentrated market.

The electromechanical brake system is leading the latest development trend in railway braking technology. The tolerance stack-up generated during the assembly and production process catalyzes the slight geometric dimensioning and tolerancing between the motor stator and rotor inside the electromechanical cylinder. The tolerance leads to imprecise brake control, so it is necessary to diagnose the fault of the motor in the fully assembled electromechanical brake system. This paper aims to present improved variational mode decomposition (VMD) algorithm, which endeavors to elucidate and push the boundaries of mechanical synchronicity problems within the realm of the electromechanical brake system.

The VMD algorithm plays a pivotal role in the preliminary phase, employing mode decomposition techniques to decompose the motor speed signals. Afterward, the error energy algorithm precision is utilized to extract abnormal features, leveraging the practical intrinsic mode functions, eliminating extraneous noise and enhancing the signal’s fidelity. This refined signal then becomes the basis for fault analysis. In the analytical step, the cepstrum is employed to calculate the formant and envelope of the reconstructed signal. By scrutinizing the formant and envelope, the fault point within the electromechanical brake system is precisely identified, contributing to a sophisticated and accurate fault diagnosis.

This paper innovatively uses the VMD algorithm for the modal decomposition of electromechanical brake (EMB) motor speed signals and combines it with the error energy algorithm to achieve abnormal feature extraction. The signal is reconstructed according to the effective intrinsic mode functions (IMFS) component of removing noise, and the formant and envelope are calculated by cepstrum to locate the fault point. Experiments show that the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) algorithm can effectively decompose the original speed signal. After feature extraction, signal enhancement and fault identification, the motor mechanical fault point can be accurately located. This fault diagnosis method is an effective fault diagnosis algorithm suitable for EMB systems.

By using this improved VMD algorithm, the electromechanical brake system can precisely identify the rotational anomaly of the motor. This method can offer an online diagnosis analysis function during operation and contribute to an automated factory inspection strategy while parts are assembled. Compared with the conventional motor diagnosis method, this improved VMD algorithm can eliminate the need for additional acceleration sensors and save hardware costs. Moreover, the accumulation of online detection functions helps improve the reliability of train electromechanical braking systems.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the medical incident responses from two public hospitals in Hong Kong, namely, Kowloon Hospital and Caritas Medical Centre, in order to improve the strategic preparation for crisis management in hospitals.

The paper analyses two medical incidents using Situational Crisis Communication Theory by Coombs (2007). The two case studies presented herein demonstrate the importance of consistency in terms of crisis responses.

For the first case, the crisis responses from different parties after the incident, including Hospital Authority, the doctor and the nurses from Kowloon Hospital, are contradicting to each other. First, Hospital Authority confirmed that the incident is solely an accident which is a denial response. Second, the doctor passed the responsibility to the nurses which is a scapegoating response. Third, the nurses tend to reduce the responsibility for the death of patient by excusing strategy. As a whole, their responses are inconsistent to each other. For the second case, Caritas had initially denied the responsibilities, but finally had given partial apology under public pressure. That makes people think that Caritas does not really regret.

Rebuilding posture should be used instead of denial and diminishment posture. However, public organization and civil servants are reluctant to use a full apology due to possible legal consequences. The apology ordinance would ease the pressure to express regret and sympathy.

This study aims to facilitate consistency of information in building information modelling (BIM) and address the current BIM gaps through the perspectives of the productization concept and product structure (PS).

The study follows a conceptual research approach in conjunction with a single case study. First, the previous studies on BIM implementation, productization and PS are reviewed. Further, a case study is used to analyse the current state of productization in the construction sector and develop a functional PS for construction.

A Part-Phase-Elements Matrix is proposed as a construction-specific PS to facilitate consistency in information and to enhance BIM. The proposed matrix provides new avenues to facilitate consistent information exchange through the interconnection between conceptual PS and standard building objects library, and encourage collaborative communication between stakeholders.

This study explores the core of the productization concept and PS as means to facilitate consistency of information and thus address the current gaps in BIM. This as building projects progressively move towards systematic modular and prefabricated construction where the flow of reliable information about product and construction offerings becomes increasingly important.

This paper aims to investigate cross-gender effects of gender stereotypes in advertising. More specifically, it proposes that the negative effects found in studies of women’s reactions to stereotyped female portrayals should hold across gender portrayal and target audience gender.

In two experimental studies, the effects of stereotyped portrayals (vs non-stereotyped portrayals) across gender are compared.

The results show that advertising portrayals of women and men have a presumed negative influence on others, leading to higher levels of ad reactance, which has a negative impact on brand-related effects across model and participant gender, and for gender stereotypes in terms of physical characteristics and roles.

Whereas previous studies have focused on reactions of women to female stereotypes, the current paper suggests that women and men alike react negatively to stereotyped portrayals of other genders.

The results indicate that marketers can benefit from adapting a more mindful approach to the portrayals of gender used in advertising.

The addition of a cross-gender perspective to the literature on gender stereotypes in advertising is a key contribution to this literature.

The novel coronavirus (nCoV) pandemic, and the challenges of social distancing, proffer a unique opportunity to re-explore the role of social network support in entrepreneurship. Applying social support theory and gender schema theory, this study aims to examine the gender-based differences in prospective entrepreneurs' reliance on their social networks in their entrepreneurial journey amid social turmoil.

The authors collected two-stage primary survey data of prospective entrepreneurs within the pandemic's timeframe from Science and Technology Parks in Iran, one of the first countries to deal with the first, second and third waves of the 2019-nCoV virus.

The findings demonstrate that female entrepreneurs rely more strongly on their social network support for guidance and encouragement, which positively affects their opportunity intention. While this effect is also seen in men, the effect size is smaller. Also, prospective female entrepreneurs were generally more dissuaded from opportunity intention by the severe perceived environmental uncertainty of the crisis than were men.

Prior research on the interaction between social network support and opportunity intentions has been examined in the context of socio-economic normalcy. The authors test whether, how and why these interactions hold in times of crisis, with especial attention to the mechanisms of experienced stress, perceived environmental uncertainty and idea innovativeness.

This study aims to provide a comparative portrait of the profile of men and women in the boardrooms of listed companies (Euronext Lisbon, Portugal) during the first stage of the gender quota law, by comparing the profile of those board members appointed before the mandated quota law and those appointed after it. This study also seeks to contribute to a critical review of the main reservations expressed by some core institutional actors, who initially voiced their concern that it might be difficult to find women in equal conditions to men in terms of their cumulative experience and qualifications to serve as board members.

In addition to providing a comparative descriptive analysis of male and female board members’ profiles before and after the mandated gender quota law, an aggregate professional endowments measure (professional endowments Index) is also calculated.

The research findings show that, in the first stage of the quota law, men and women appointed as board members after the mandated gender quota law are fundamentally similar in their professional attributes, forming a more homogeneous boardroom than those holding board positions before it.

This study contributes to the literature on the profile of the men and women serving on the publicly listed company boards in Portugal, by comparing their profiles before and after the mandated gender quota law. This study also fills a gap in the literature, as studies about gender quotas and corporate boards relating to Portugal and Southern European countries in general are still relatively scant. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study carried out into the gender quota law on corporate boards in Portugal.

Building on work that explores the relationship between individual beliefs and ability to recognize discrimination (e.g., Kaiser and Major, 2006), we examine how an adherence to beliefs about gender essentialism, gender egalitarianism, and meritocracy shape one’s interpretation of an illegal act of sexual harassment involving a male supervisor and female subordinate. We also consider whether the role of the gendered culture of engineering (Faulkner, 2009) matters for this relationship. Specifically, we conducted an online survey-experiment asking individuals to report their beliefs about gender and meritocracy and subsequently to evaluate a fictitious but illegal act of sexual harassment in one of two university research settings: an engineering department, a male-dominated setting whose culture is documented as being unwelcoming to women (Hatmaker, 2013; Seron, Silbey, Cech, and Rubineau, 2018), and an ambiguous research setting. We find evidence that the stronger one’s adherence to gender egalitarian beliefs, the greater one’s ability to detect inappropriate behavior and sexual harassment while gender essentialist beliefs play no role in their detection. The stronger one’s adherence to merit beliefs, the less likely they are to view an illegal interaction as either inappropriate or as sexual harassment. We account for respondent knowledge of sexual harassment and their socio-demographic characteristics, finding that the former is more often associated with the detection of inappropriate behavior and sexual harassment at work. We close with a discussion of the transferability of results and policy implications of our findings.