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The shadow economy (SE) has been a serious issue with varied dimensions in all countries that significantly affect economic growth. Therefore, all countries have made an effort to tackle the SE by pursuing several measures. This study aims to investigate the impact of financial markets (stock and bond) in reducing the SE while considering the role of country risk (political, economic and financial) in N-11 countries.

The study employed first-generation methodological techniques, including a unit root test to identify stationarity in the series, a panel cointegration test and panel autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) to estimate long-run and short-run relationships. Finally, the Granger causality is applied to determine the direction of the causal relationship.

The study explored that country risk factors are crucial in reducing the size of the SE. Moreover, the significant moderating role of country risk factors in the financial market development and SE nexus suggests that by controlling the country's risk, financial market development can negatively affect the SE.

Due to the availability of data, the study used data, ranging from 1995 to 2015, because the tax burden data is available from 1995 while the maximum data for the SE is available till 2015, using Medina and Schneider's (2019) data estimates for the SE.

The previous studies have focused explicitly on the role of financial institutions' development in the SE. To the best of the author's knowledge, no previous study is attempted to investigate the role of financial markets (bonds and stock) in the size of the SE. Furthermore, previous studies have ignored the important role of country risk factors in the size of the SE. This study investigates the impact of country risk on the SE and the moderating role of country risk in the development of financial markets and the SE nexus.

This paper aims to highlight the role of the CEO’s background in the stock market reaction to a product recall. Based on the upper echelons theory and the crisis management literature, we argue that the CEO’s background influences the expected response in a product harm crisis and the updating of investors’ expectations following a product recall announcement. We test if the CEO’s background influences the abnormal stock market returns around product recalls and how it affects the way investors interpret the recall strategy and severity.

We use an event study, for a sample of 2,576 product recalls in the US automobile industry, between January 2010 and June 2021.

We observe that the stock market’s reaction is less negative if the firm’s CEO presents a core specialist background and for firms led by insider CEOs. This result is in line with our argument that in the presence of a crisis that requires operational and firm-specific knowledge, such as product recalls, the best alignment in terms of the CEO’s background occurs when the CEO was recruited inside and is a core specialist. Finally, we also find that the CEO’s background has a moderating effect on the impact of the recall strategy and severity on the stock market reaction to a recall announcement. In particular, a recall with high severity has a more negative stock market reaction when the CEO is a core specialist as such an event is not expected by the market.

These results have important implications for practitioners and scholars working in the areas of product quality and corporate governance. Given the high frequency and high costs for firms to carry out these operations in the automobile industry, we recommend a careful analysis of the CEO’s background before their appointment as well as careful planning to prevent and to adequately react appropriately to product quality problems. While there is a common tendency among executives to cut discretionary expenditures such as spending on product safety, our results regarding the stock market reaction to product recall announcements suggest that investors expect firms led by insider and core specialist CEOs to be more likely to ensure product quality and to respond to product quality crisis.

We extend knowledge of product recalls by studying the role of the CEO’s background on the stock market reaction to product recall announcements.

The purpose of this study is to present a training system on smart phones to develop fashion and textile concepts among the female students with severe hearing impairment and then to determine the effectiveness of the training system in developing fashion and textile concepts among the female students with severe hearing impairment.

The analytical descriptive methodology and experimental methodology were used to examine the training system in developing fashion and textile concepts among the female students with severe hearing impairment.

The findings of this study indicate that the training system on smart phones was effective in developing fashion and textile concepts among the female students with severe hearing impairment.

This study has some limitations such as limited sample size, lack of control group and lack of long-term.

This study provides practical implications for educators, researchers and practitioners in terms of using smart phone applications in educational processes for people with disabilities.

This study has social implications for people with disabilities as it provides them with access to education through smart phone applications which can help them develop their skills in fashion and textile design.

This study presents an original model of a training system on smart phones for developing fashion and textile concepts among the female students with severe hearing impairment, which can be used as a reference for other studies related to this field.

This study aims to explore the influence of academic service quality on student satisfaction and loyalty, based on a study at Higher Education Legal Entities (HELE) in Indonesia. HELE is a policy in higher education that empowers these institutions to become autonomous in management. Academic service quality (ASQ) is an essential aspect of fostering the satisfaction and loyalty of students.

This study uses the descriptive quantitative and regressive survey approach to examine the influence of academic service quality on student satisfaction and loyalty. The population in this study encompassed all students from HELE. Meanwhile, 750 students were purposefully selected from 16 HELE in Indonesia. Data were collected using validated and reliable questionnaires. The garnered data were analyzed using a structural equation model through Smart PLS 3.

This study finds that (1) there is a significant direct influence of academic service quality on student satisfaction in HELE, (2) there is a reasonably direct influence of student satisfaction on student loyalty in HELE. (3) ASQ of HELE has a feeble direct influence on student loyalty and (4) there is a moderate indirect impact of academic service quality on student loyalty, mediated by student satisfaction at HELE in Indonesia.

The research was conducted across 16 HELEs in Indonesia. Many other universities do services and of course impact on satisfaction and loyalty for students, but are not included in this research. Besides that, other aspects are not included in this research either. Based on that condition, this result cannot cover all aspects of others in all universities in Indonesia.

The practical implication of this study’s results for the leaders of HELES is to commit to student-centered, service-oriented tactics and actions for establishing student loyalty. Besides, these institutions must prioritize developing and maintaining profitable customer relationships in this changing world and offer an agenda for the future research.

The social implication will be indicated by higher universities to always improve the service quality of academics, with continuous improvement in the future. It has to do with every university so that student satisfaction improves, and student loyalty improves too. Exiting HELE in the future depends on the variables of service quality for stakeholders in the community around. If the community gets satisfaction, in the future, they will be back to support the HELE in the future.

The results of this study are original and novel, and strengthen the findings of previous research that there is an effect of academic service quality on student satisfaction. It confirms the effects of satisfaction on loyalty, along with the effects of academic service quality on loyalty mediated by satisfaction. These results rejected previous results that there are effects of academic service quality on student loyalty in HELE as organizations.

The study aims to examine the impact of six events related to the escalating Indo-China border conflicts in 2020 on the Indian stock market, including the role of firm-specific variables.

This study employs an event-study method on a sample of 481 firms from August 23, 2019 to March 3, 2022. A cross-sectional regression is employed to examine the association between event-led abnormal returns and firm characteristics.

The results show that, although the individual events reflect heterogeneous effects on stock market returns, the average impact of the event categories is negative. The study also found that net working capital, current ratio, financial leverage and operating cash flows are significant financial performance indicators and drive cumulative abnormal returns. Further, size anomaly is absent, indicating that more prominent firms are resilient to new information.

The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine is an example of how these disagreements can devolve into a disaster for the parties to the war. Although wars have an impact on markets at the global level, the impacts of border disputes are local. Border disputes are ongoing, and the study's findings can be used to empower investors to make risk-averting decisions that make their portfolios resilient to such events.

This study provides firm-level insight into the impacts of border conflicts on stock markets. The authors compare the magnitude of such impacts on two types of events, namely injuries and casualties due to country-specific border tensions and a government ban on Chinese apps. Key implications for policymakers, stakeholders and academics are presented.

This study aims to explore differences in the usability of the Google Drive application based on demographic characteristics, computer skills and use frequency of Google Drive among public library users of Lahore.

The study adopted a quantitative approach and survey-based research method to achieve the study's objectives. The cloud usability model (user perspective) has been used as a theoretical lens to guide the study objectives. It comprises five dimensions of usability – capable, personal, reliable, valuable and secure.

The findings of the study revealed that the usability of Google Drive varied statistically significantly on the basis of depending on the respondents gender, age, academic qualification, computer skills and Google Drive use frequency.

It is a valuable study since it and adds knowledge to existing literature and has implications for practice.

The findings might be helpful for cloud support teams including Google Drive as they can notice the demographic and other differences among users' perceived usability of Google Drive and can enhance certain features of usability which leads attributes to increase its usage among users.

Total risk score (TRS) is considered one of the main indicators for risk evaluation. Several studies attempted to employ different types of risk indices for the evaluation of cost overrun causes. Hence, this study aims at performing a comparative analysis to evaluate the efficiency of three different approaches for TRS calculation.

Thirty-eight unique causes of cost overrun in urban-related construction projects were identified and a survey was conducted among construction professionals in Iran. The TRS for each cost overrun cause is calculated using single-attribute (SA), double-attribute (DA), and multiple-attribute (MA) approaches, and eventually, causes were ranked. Furthermore, principal component analysis (PCA), logistic regression analysis (LRA), and K-means clustering are utilized to compare the differences in the generated TRS using different approaches.

The results revealed that the TRS generated through the MA approach demonstrated the highest efficiency in terms of generating correlation between causes and their identified latent constructs, prediction capability, and classification of the influential causes in the same group.

The originality of this study primarily stems from the adoption of statistical approaches in the evaluation of the recently introduced TRS calculation approach in comparison to traditional ones. Additionally, this study proposed a modified application of the relative importance index (RII) for risk prioritization. The results from this study are expected to fulfill the gap in previous literature toward exploring the most efficient TRS calculation approach for those researchers and practitioners who seek to utilize them as a measure to identify the influential cost overrun causes.

This study examines the immediate impact of the Israel-Iran conflict on global stock markets and currency pairs, focusing on how these effects vary by market maturity and geographic region.

This study uses the event study method to examine the immediate effect of the Israel-Iran conflict. It uses the market model across a 252-day estimation window through −257, −6 trading days and an 11-day event window through −5, +5 trading days. The primary sample includes 73 stock market indices, 7 EURO currency pairs, 14 USD currency pairs, 6 GBP currency pairs, and 7 JPY currency pairs.

The findings suggest that (1) the global stock markets are adversely affected by the Israel-Iran conflict, (2) the JPY, GBP, and EURO currency pairs are least affected, (3) the USD currency pairs exhibit positive abnormal returns suggesting flight to safety, (4) the frontier and standalone markets experience most adverse effects, followed by developed and emerging markets, (5) the pan-American stock markets experience more pronounced effects of the conflict, followed by the Europe, Middle East, and African stock markets and the Asia Pacific stock markets.

The findings advise investors to manage risk during geopolitical uncertainty through diversification and hedging. Policymakers should monitor developments and enact responsive measures. Market participants can capitalize on insights for strategic investment.

The study contributes to the extant war literature by exploring the impact of the Israel-Iran conflict on global stock markets and currency pairs. This study serves as the first to examine the effects of the escalating conflict due to Iran’s attack on Israel.

This study aims to measure the level of satisfaction among women with childbirth services provided at public health facilities. Further, to analyse the impact of their socio-economic and obstetric characteristics on their level of satisfaction.

To accomplish these objectives a cross-sectional survey was conducted in two districts of an Indian state, Bihar. Structured questionnaire was developed based on the scale proposed by Okumu and Oyugi (2018) both for vaginal and caesarean birth patients. For empirical analysis multiple linear regression model was employed.

Results suggest that majority of mothers are satisfied with the care they received during childbirth, regardless of whether they chose a caesarean (55%) or vaginal delivery (53%). Women report the lowest levels of satisfaction with postpartum care and the privacy that was preserved by healthcare personnel at health facility. Further the study also confirms the association between patient’s socio-economic characteristics and their satisfaction level.

This is the first study of its kind to highlight the situation of public healthcare system in Bihar, which is the third most populated state in India with poor social and health indicators.

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises are the live wire of construction industry in developing countries. These classes of establishments are most affected by economic contraction and turmoil, thus affecting their performance and survivability. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate and prioritize the survival determinants of construction consulting organization during economic contraction in Nigeria using quantity surveying firms as a focal point.

The study adopted the descriptive-survey design and quantitative data were collected through questionnaire purposely administered to quantity surveying firms in the Southwestern part of Nigeria. The data obtained from 99 quantity surveying firms on survival determinants were analysed using various statistical analysis such as mean score, standard deviation, Mann–Whitney U test, Kruskal–Wallis H test, and so on. Principal component analysis was used to identify the principal components of survival determinants, while the factors were prioritized using fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE).

The result of the analysis reveals eight factors that significantly determines the survival of firms during the period of economic contraction. Furthermore, the eight grouped factors were prioritized accordingly namely firm's innovation and diversification, ownership structure and networking, education level and management skills, and so on.

This study investigated the survival determinants of quantity surveying firms and prioritized it with the opinions of principal partners in quantity surveying establishments. As against obtaining large survey responses from all quantity surveyors in the study area that may not have practical experience of managing firms, the limited responses received provide valid basis to broaden the horizon of professionals and other stakeholders on the key determinants for firms to survive economic turmoil.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge by providing information on prioritized factors that must be considered in an appropriate order by quantity surveying firms to survive economic contraction.