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It has been argued in the literature that structural changes in the financial markets, such as integration, have the potential to cause herding behavior or correlated behavioral patterns in traders. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there is any financial herding behavior in the Latin American Integrated Market (MILA), a transnational stock market composed of Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico stock exchanges and whether there is any ARCH or GARCH effect in the herding behavior models.

This study uses the modified return dispersion approach on daily index return data. The sample period is from January 03, 2002 to May 07, 2019. The data are obtained from the MILA database. To count time-varying volatilities in herding models, the authors run ARCH family regression with GARCH (1,1) settings. Hwang and Salmon (2004) model is used as a robustness test.

The authors found strong herding behavior under the general market conditions and moderate and partial herding behavior under some specified markets circumstances, such as bull and bear markets and high-low volatility states. Moreover, the pre-MILA period exhibits more herding behavior than the post-MILA period. The empirical results show that most of the ARCH and GARCH effects are statistically significant, implying that the past information of stock returns and market volatility significantly affect the volatility of following periods, which can also explain the formation of herding tendency among investors. Finally, the results of the robustness tests (Hwang and Salmon, 2004) confirm herding in all periods, except full sample period for Mexico and post-MILA period for Mexico and Colombia.

This study investigates the herding behavior in the MILA market in terms of market return, volatility and timing. A limitation of the paper is that the authors have not included other factors on the formation of herding behavior, such as macroeconomic factors, effects of regional or international markets and policy influences. The authors will explore the issue in the extension of the paper.

As MILA is the first virtual integration of stock exchanges without merging, the study provides useful findings and draws good inferences of herding behavior in the MILA market in terms of market return, volatility and timing which are useful for academics, investors and policymakers in their investment and decision makings.

The paper provides useful findings and draws good inferences of herding behavior in the MILA market in terms of market return, volatility and timing which are not only useful in practical implications, but also in social implications.

This study contributes to the herding literature by examining four different hypotheses in respect of the unique case of transnational stock exchange without fusions or corporate mergers, where each market maintains its independence and regulatory autonomy. The authors also contribute to the literature by including both ARCH and GARCH effects in the herding behavioral models along the Hwang and Salmon (2004) approach.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss architecture that produces spatial experience with which children and young adults are able to interact, giving them a great sense of positive energy that translates into actual healing. This type of architecture is few in number but can create a transition toward sustainable healing.

Spatial experience was evident in the architectural practice of the ancient world. Back then architects considered what moods should they give to spaces that best suit their functions. In our contemporary world, this trail of thinking is replaced by architecture that do not connect with the user’s psychology. The paper will prove that there are few architects today who are willing to exert an effort in providing the right moods for their buildings with a sustainable vibe. The paper will discuss this point by taking four examples of architecture specialized in healing young adults and children.

Through analysis of the case studies, the paper reveals the importance of spatial experience approach in producing meaningful architecture that connects with the user. The paper shows that it is through this approach that important moments of architectural history was made as well as the works of famous architects of our times.

The research redefines how should we look at architectural history through spatial experience analysis. It also gives us an insight into how architects become famous today through their unique design process that continue to be successful and admired by ordinary users not just specialists. The research is not limited to this paper, but currently expanding to include other case studies of different building types.

The partially prestressed concrete beam with unbonded tendon is still an active field of research because of the difficulty in analyzing and understanding its behavior. The finite-element (FE) simulation of such beams using numerical software is very scarce in the literature and therefore this study is taken to demonstrate the modeling aspects of unbonded partially prestressed concrete (UPPSC) beams. This study aims to present the three-dimensional (3-D) nonlinear FE simulations of UPPSC beams subjected to monotonic static loadings using the numerical analysis package ANSYS.

The sensitivity study is carried out with three different mesh densities to obtain the optimum elements that reflect on the load–deflection behavior of numerical models, and the model with optimum element density is used further to model all the UPPSC beams in this study. Three half-symmetry FE model is constructed in ANSYS parametric design language domain with proper boundary conditions at the symmetry plane and support to achieve the same response as that of the full-scale experimental beam available in the literature. The linear and nonlinear material behavior of prestressing tendon and conventional steel reinforcements, concrete and anchorage and loading plates are modeled using link180, solid65 and solid185 elements, respectively. The Newton–Raphson iteration method is used to solve the nonlinear solution of the FE models.

The evolution of concrete cracking at critical loadings, yielding of nonprestressed steel reinforcements, stress increment in the prestressing tendon, stresses in concrete elements and the complete load–deflection behavior of the UPPSC beams are well predicted by the proposed FE model. The maximum discrepancy of ultimate moments and deflections of the validated FE models exhibit 13% and −5%, respectively, in comparison with the experimental results.

The FE analysis of UPPSC beams is done using ANSYS software, which is a versatile tool in contrast to the experimental testing to study the stress increments in the unbonded tendons and assess the complete nonlinear response of partially prestressed concrete beams. The validated numerical model and the techniques presented in this study can be readily used to explore the parametric analysis of UPPSC beams.

The developed model is capable of predicting the strength and nonlinear behavior of UPPSC beams with reasonable accuracy. The load–deflection plot captured by the FE model is corroborated with the experimental data existing in the literature and the FE results exhibit good agreement against the experimentally tested beams, which expresses the practicability of using FE analysis for the nonlinear response of UPPSC beams using ANSYS software.

Uncertainty in data, whether in real-valued or integer-valued data, may result in infeasible optimal solutions or unreliable efficiency scores and ranking of decision-making units. To handle the uncertainty in integer-valued factors in data envelopment analysis (DEA) models, this study aims to propose a robust DEA model which is applicable in the presence of such factors.

This research focuses on the application of fuzzy interpretation of efficiency to a mixed-integer DEA (MIDEA) model. The robust optimization approach is used to address the uncertain integer-valued parameters in the proposed MIDEA model.

In this study, the authors proposed an MIDEA model without any equality constraint to avoid the arise problem by such constraints in the construction of the robust counterpart of the conventional MIDEA models. We have studied the characteristics and conditions for constructing the uncertainty set with uncertain integer-valued parameters and a robust MIDEA model is proposed under a combined box-polyhedral uncertainty set. The applicability of the developed models is shown in a case study of Malaysian public universities.

This study develops an MIDEA model equivalent to the conventional MIDEA model excluding any equality constraint which is crucial in robust approach to avoid restricted feasible region or infeasible solutions. This study proposes a robust DEA approach which is applicable in cases with uncertain integer-valued parameters, unlike previous studies in robust DEA field where uncertain parameters are generally assumed to be only real-valued.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the historical influences and chronological development of foreign investors on Malaysian Bumiputera (indigenous) new technology-based small firms (NTBSFs).

Weick’s (1989) conceptual theory building approach is used to conduct a critical historical documentary analysis of the international, local, academic and government inward foreign investments literature from prior Malaysia’s independence (1957) through to 2016.

Increased foreign investment between 1957 and 2016 proved to be effective for Malaysia to transform its economy from a reliance on primary production to a focus on innovation and value-added industries such as the biotechnology and the information and communication and technology sectors.

Local and international literature addressing inward foreign investments towards host countries yielded four key research implications: employment effects, strategic alliances, technology transfer and knowledge transfer. Creation of firm-specific resources in addition to government assistance, particularly through grants and advisory services, significantly contribute to the sustainability of Bumiputera NTBSFs.

Inward foreign investment through subsidiary multi-national companies (MNCs) leads to the formation of strategic alliances between MNCs and Bumiputera NTBSFs, generating employment opportunities, contributing to Malaysia’s development aims.

Charting the chronological development and historical influence of foreign investment from a Malay-Bumiputera perspective provides an in-depth understanding of the evolution of what is now a multi-cultural Malaysian society.

This study provides a chronological development and discussion of the historical influences and implications of foreign investment towards the evolution and sustainability of Malaysian Bumiputera NTBSFs.

Information security has become an essential entity for organizations across the globe to eliminate the possible risks in their organizations by conducting information security risk assessment (ISRA). However, the existence of numerous different types of risk assessment methods, standards, guidelines and specifications readily available causes the organizations to face the daunting tasks in determining the most suitable method that would augur well in meeting their needs. Therefore, to overcome this tedious process, this paper suggests collective information structure model for ISRA.

The proposed ISRA model was developed by deploying a questionnaire using close-ended questions administrated to a group of information security practitioners in Malaysia (N = 80). The purpose of the survey was to strengthen and add more relevant additional features to the existing framework, as it was developed based on secondary data.

Previous comparative and analyzed studies reveals that all the six types of ISRA methodologies have features of the same kind of information with a slight difference in form. Therefore, questionnaires were designed to insert additional features to the research framework. All the additional features chosen were based on high frequency of more than half percentage agreed responses from respondents. The analyses results inspire in generating a collective information structure model which more practical in the real environment of the workplace.

Generally, organizations need to make comparisons between methodologies and decide on the best due to the inexistence of agreed reference benchmark in ISRA methodologies. This tedious process leads to unwarranted time, money and energy consumption.

The collective information structure model for ISRA aims to assist organizations in getting a general view of ISRA flow and gathering information on the requirements to be met before risk assessment can be conducted successfully. This model can be conveniently used by organizations to complete all the required planning as well as to select the suitable methods to complete the ISRA.

Throughout the extant studies on Islamic work values, many variations in the concept of Islamic work values were found. This has created some confusions and misunderstandings on what is the core of Islamic work values that is highly emphasized by Islam. The unanimity of Islamic work values is fundamental to Islamic organizations, and businesses in particular, as it indicates ethical, effectiveness and religious reputations of the organizations. This paper aims to identify the core Islamic work values based on Islamic legal texts (the Qur‘an and the Hadith as the two main Islamic sources), the writings of Islamic scholars and then to have experts verify whether or not the identified work values are core Islamic work values.

The paper used a qualitative approach where Islamic legal texts (the Qur’an and the Hadith) as well as the writing of Islamic scholars were used as a main reference to identify the core Islamic work values. These identified core Islamic work values were later verified by the muftīs. The verification assessment involved six muftīs from Malaysia.

The final result revealed that 14 core Islamic work values have been verified by the muftīs. These 14 considered core Islamic work values are essential work values of Islam which are important to achieve effective work performance.

The findings presented are useful for managers and employees in Islamic organizations to decide on what Islamic work values that should be given more precedence and to be practised in their organizations.

This is a novel study that combines two approaches, the Islamic legal texts and muftīs verification regarding the work values obtained that can be accepted as the core Islamic work values. Therefore, these findings can be a guide for many future studies in the area of Islamic work values.

This study aims to synthesize new disperse dyes based on novel pyrazolyl quinolinone derivatives EQ1 and EQ2 and evaluate their characteristics after dyeing them on a polyester fabric.

New dispersed dyes based on pyrazolyl quinolinone derivatives were prepared and confirmed by different analyses, such as infrared spectroscopy, elemental microanalysis and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. They were dyed on a polyester fabric. The characteristics of dyed polyester were determined by color measurements such as a*, b*, L*, C*, E, Ho, R% and color strength. The electronic structures of EQ1 and EQ2 in gaseous state were investigated using density functional theory/B3LYP/6-311++G (d, p) level of theory.

The suitability of the prepared dyestuffs for dyeing on polyester fabrics has been investigated. The study was concerned with comparing the contrasting depth of shade and levelness. The study was concerned mainly with dye uptake and color measurements at two different temperatures. The results showed that the exhaustion values of dyes inside the polyester at 130°C were higher than those obtained at conventional dyeing temperature (100°C). The exhaustion values of EQ2 were greater than those of EQ1 at 130°C with 2.2%, while the brightness of EQ2 was higher than that of EQ1 at the two investigated temperatures. The results of molecular orbital calculations show that the studied compounds are planar. In addition, the ionization potential of EQ1 was lower than that of EQ2. The results of the theoretical study helped in understanding the dyeing behavior of the investigated azo dyes.

The prepared disperse dyes based on pyrazolyl quinolinone derivatives could be used in textile dyeing of polyester on an industrial scale.