Search results

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of the target firm’s high-tech status on the share of ownership decision in cross-border acquisitions (CBAs), which is an under-explored topic in cross-border M&A literature.

The authors used Tobit regression and tested the hypotheses using a sample of 7,011 CBA transactions between 1999 and 2014. Inverse Mills ratio was used to address selection bias, and various robustness tests were performed.

The authors found that acquirers seek greater ownership share when acquiring high-tech firms, and that this relationship is moderated by various firm and national level factors. Specifically, the positive relationship between the high-tech status of a target firm and ownership share acquired is stronger when the firms’ primary operations are highly related or there is high formal institutional distance between the firms’ home countries, but it is weaker when acquirers have more prior M&A experience or there is high cultural and geographic distance between the firms’ home countries.

While the topic of ownership strategy in CBAs is advancing, it is still limited, especially when examining acquisitions of high-tech target firms. The authors contribute to the research on CBAs and ownership strategy by focusing on the high-tech status of the target firm, and using a sample of both private and public target firms from 116 countries.

The purpose of the study was to assess how the well-being and loneliness of public relations and communication professionals are impacted by the post-pandemic characteristics of the work environment: flexible work schemes, non-territorial office arrangements and video communication technologies. It was hypothesised that the post-pandemic workplace landscape poses several new challenges to the practice of PR – an industry which invariably relies on working with other people and demands a good level of social resilience. Loneliness and well-being both depend on the experience of having good and efficient social relationships, but the pandemic has directly and indirectly led to their deterioration.

The project employed a correlational design and used an online survey system to collect responses from Gen Z professionals employed in the public relations and communications industry in the UK and the US via the Prolific platform. Demographical and workplace-related characteristics were assessed to investigate links with loneliness (measured using a three-item scale adopted from Russell et al., 1980 in Hughes, 2004) and well-being (using a short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale scale). Causal relationships between data were tested using regression analysis for continuous variables and analysis of covariance for categorical factors. Bootstrapping was used to test mediated relationships that explain loneliness, job satisfaction and the well-being of Gen Z PR professionals.

Several types of flexible working schemes, defined as the ability to work from home on any number of weeks, showed an impact on loneliness and job satisfaction but not on well-being. However, all remaining aspects of the post-pandemic office did manifest as important predictors. In the sample, 30% of Gen Z PR professionals showed signs of mild to clinical levels of depression, and the best protection from this state was the presence of a significant other. Lower levels of loneliness were related to non-territorial office arrangements and job satisfaction. The use of hot desks and open-plan arrangements led to a significantly lower level of job satisfaction than a traditional, cellular office. Both excessive online meetings and face-to-face only interactions led to marginally lower levels of loneliness and job satisfaction.

The present research is limited in several aspects. Firstly, while the project evaluated loneliness, job satisfaction and mental well-being (with each of these elements including a component of the requirement for building effective relationships), the quality of relationships built by PR professionals was not measured. Secondly, the project focused only on post-pandemic aspects of the workplace and did not cover other important components of job satisfaction. Lastly, the measure of online meetings was declarative rather than behavioural, and greater control of the number of online meetings held would be required to show more reliable links between variables.

This study calls for proposing recommendations for employers to develop organisational-level measures and programmes to counteract loneliness. While traditionally intimate relationships of employees were not a direct focus of HR programmes, employers should develop elements of organisational culture that would support employees in building effective intimate relationships. Separately from this, despite immediate financial benefits, employers should avoid using open-space and hot desk policies, as they contribute negatively to job satisfaction (and indirectly to well-being). The sample of UK and US professionals was chosen for analysis because in these countries employers have more capacity to introduce changes to tangible characteristics of the workplace and work culture, which may positively impact the well-being of their employees.

It is expected that both employers and employees will revisit their approach to post-pandemic financial and logistic challenges related to the workplace. A lower level of job satisfaction and well-being is linked to the lack of assigned office space, but the ability to work exclusively from home leads to loneliness. Employees – when offered this possibility – should work in offices they are provided. Employers must appreciate the negative link between open and hot-desking policies and job satisfaction and well-being of their employees.

This study is the first to examine the post-pandemic workplace and personal characteristics of public relations and communications professionals in the UK and US and show how they impact job satisfaction and well-being. The study shows that 30% of employed in the PR industry are at risk of depression or anxiety. The connecting factor between personal and work-related characteristics that explains this problem is loneliness.

This study aims to gain a new perspective on auditing by measuring investors’ fraud perception and to reveal the necessity of increasing individuals’ fraud perception by determining the effect of fraud perception on the intention to invest in crypto assets from the investor’s perspective.

As part of this quantitative research, a survey was conducted on individuals residing in Türkiye and aged 18 years and above through a convenience sampling method. A total of 446 participants were included in the study. The data collected was analyzed using the partial least squares-variance based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method using the SmartPLS program.

Fraud perception causes individuals to be more risk-averse and reduces their intention to invest in crypto assets. At the same time, it has been observed that risk-averse individuals have lower intention to invest in crypto assets. According to the results of the mediating effect analysis, risk aversion behavior partially mediates between the fraud perception and the intention to invest in crypto assets. Among the emotions, only fear increases risk aversion behavior. Among the personality traits, extroversion and openness to experience personality traits reduce risk aversion behavior, whereas neuroticism personality traits increase the intention to invest in crypto assets.

In an environment where traditional auditing activities are insufficient, increasing investors’ perceptions of fraud can reduce fraud-related losses. In this context, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present study might be among the first to investigate the impact of individuals’ perceptions of fraud on their investment intentions in crypto assets.

The team collective voice (TCV) concept has received limited attention in existing research despite its potential significance, particularly within Eastern cultural contexts. Hence, this paper aims to extend the employee voice literature by conducting a comprehensive exploration of the role of TCV as opposed to individual voice (IV) in promoting team innovative performance (TIP).

The theoretical model is tested with survey data collected among ICT employees who work in large telecommunication organizations in Vietnam.

TCV was used more by participants than IV. Both IV and TCV exhibited noteworthy influences on TIP explained by the role of routine changes, with TCV serving as a full mediator for the relationship between IV and TIP. In addition, team autonomy (TA) also significantly enhanced TIP.

By measuring TCV as shared and consensus team voice, this study makes significant contributions to employee voice literature. It not only confirms the prevalence but also offers insightful explanations for why Vietnamese employees tend to favor TCV over IV. Additionally, the findings enrich the innovation literature by presenting a novel perspective on how employee voice can enhance TIP through the introduction of exogenous routine changes. It introduces a unique perspective on employee voice as a form of a search routine, distinct from Nelson and Winter's (1982) conceptualization of search, generating changes in lower-order routines, ultimately contributing to enhanced team innovation and performance.

Whilst organisations' responses to implementing sustainability principles have been influenced significantly by external pressures (e.g. competitor action, regulator influences), researchers are turning attention to the influence of internal stakeholders (staff members) and external stakeholders (e.g. prospective applicants) on an organisation's sustainability motivations. This study aimed to assess the relationship between green recruitment practices and job pursuit intention and the role of organisational attractiveness and prestige among prospective employees.

The study uses the cross-sectional survey; a sample of 215 students are used to validate the five (5) hypotheses developed from the literature review. To achieve a more plausible regression parameter estimates, the structural equation modelling is the main analytical technique used to analyse the hypotheses.

The results show that there is a positive effect of green recruitment on organisational attractiveness, organisational prestige, and job pursuit intention. Similarly, organisational attractiveness and organisational prestige serially mediated the relationship between green recruitment and job pursuit intentions.

This study is an addition to the literature on the soft green human resource management practices, specifically green recruitment from the perspective of potential job applicants. In addition, the study uses data from a new and under-researched geographical context, Ghana to contribute and shed light on the topic. Critically, research on sustainable human resource management has been shown to be very limited from the Africa's context. Consequently, the present evidence from the Ghana's perspective responds to the call.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of users' intention to continue to invest in cryptocurrencies. The paper also aims to examine the impact of hedonic motivation and the legal environment on perceived value in cryptocurrencies.

A questionnaire was designed to obtain data from 258 respondents in UAE. The Structural Equation Modeling – Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS) was used to evaluate the research model and test the hypotheses.

The results of smart PLS path analysis showed that perceived value, hedonic motivation, gambling attitude, and price volatility were significant determinants of the continued intention to invest in cryptocurrency. This study also revealed that hedonic motivation enhances perceived value and improves the perception of cryptocurrencies value from user's perspective.

This study provides new insights into the literature on cryptocurrencies adoption, and delivers advanced understanding about the determinants of user's intention to continue investing in cryptocurrencies. In addition, the study provides important practical implications for cryptocurrencies companies to promote this financial technology to users by enhancing the knowledge of policy makers about how investors think and get motivated towards a continued investment of cryptocurrencies.

This paper aims to present a practical guide for designing effective synchronous online teaching to support student engagement.

This practical guide was developed by drawing insights from literature and our own practical experiences.

This paper developed BEST principles (i.e., Building positive relationships, Engage through interactions, Scaffold collaborative learning, and Timely feedback) as a practical framework for guiding the design of synchronous online teaching. This paper also discussed the pedagogical roles digital tools can play in supporting online teaching and the various design considerations.

This guide can serve multiple purposes: a practical framework for guiding the design of online teaching, a reflective instrument to evaluate the effectiveness of online teaching, and a resource for teacher professional development training in online teaching. It also has implications for the design of learning in other modalities (e.g. face-to-face and hybrid learning).

While some prior research has put forth principles and instructional strategies for designing online teaching, they tend to be more conceptual, and few have integrated principles with empirical evidence and technological solutions. This paper creates a comprehensive guide that integrates learning principles, technology and design considerations for effective online teaching.

Drawing on the contemporary literature and the theory of employer attractiveness, the authors aimed to examine key antecedents and consequences of employer attractiveness by proposing functional hypotheses and relationships between some endogenous variables.

Using the quota-cum-purposive sampling method, the unit of analysis selected for this study was millennials aged 18–35 years and working in the hospitality, travel, tourism and leisure (HTTL) sectors for the last two years. A total of 218 responses were collected in three months (June–August 2022). The data were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

For young employees, company recruitment behaviour, company image and source credibility are significantly and directly related to company attractiveness. The relationship between company image and employee word of mouth (WOM) was significantly positive. Company recruitment behaviour was found to significantly influence employee commitment. Company attractiveness was found to be directly related to young employees' WOM about the company and commitment to it.

The study establishes the significance of company attractiveness because a company's success largely depends on the company's ability to attract and retain a talented and skilled workforce. Moreover, the present study provides much-needed insights to policymakers and regulators that can help the policymakers define and implement favourable policies to promote and protect the country's job market and offer directions to youth employment.

Research in the domain of behavioral finance has proven that investors demonstrate irrational behavior while making investment decisions. In a similar domain, the primary objective of this research is to prioritize the behavioral biases that influence cryptocurrency investors' investment decisions in the Indian context.

A fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (F-AHP) was used to prioritize the behavioral factors impacting cryptocurrency investors' investment decisions. Overconfidence and optimism, anchoring, representativeness, information availability, herding, regret aversion, and loss aversion are among the primary biases evaluated in the present study.

The findings suggested that the two most important influential criteria were herding and regret aversion, with loss aversion and information availability being the least influential criteria. Opinions of family, friends, and colleagues about investment in cryptocurrency, the sale of cryptocurrencies that have increased in value, the avoidance of selling currencies that have decreased in value, the agony of holding losing cryptocurrencies for too long rather than selling winning cryptocurrencies too soon, and the purchase of cryptocurrencies that have fallen significantly from their all-time high are the most important sub-criteria.

This survey only covered active cryptocurrency participants. Additionally, the study was limited to individual crypto investors in one country, India, with a sample size of 467 participants. Although the sample size is appropriate, a larger sample size might reflect the more realistic scenario of the Indian crypto market.

The study is relevant to individual and institutional cryptocurrency investors, crypto portfolio managers, policymakers, researchers, market regulators, and society at large.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, no prior research has attempted to explain how the overall importance of various criteria and sub-criteria related to behavioral factors that influence the decision-making process of crypto retail investors can be assessed and how the priority of focus can be established, particularly in the Indian context.

This study aims to map the digital risks for the Islamic finance industry. Since 2010, the financial space has largely shifted from being banking-centric to the entrepreneurship spectrum, benefiting from groundbreaking innovations in computer technology. The problem of Islamic Finance is that it is still within its banking-centric moment that is risk averse leading to financial exclusion. As with all innovations, there are associated risks that require careful consideration to ensure the reaping of the benefits of these technologies while controlling the risks at its lowest. In this context, the aim of this study is to highlight the risks associated with financial technologies (FinTech) to prepare the Islamic finance sector to serve the economic ideals of Maqāṣid al-Shariah in financial inclusion and profit and loss sharing. The main research question is as follows: What do Islamic Finance industry need to do to manage the digital risks for financial inclusion?

This study uses narrative review method in analysing the discourse of financial technology literature using qualitative data collected from the literature on the topic. It aimed to problematise associated digital risks from the Shariah compliance and Maqā¸ṣid al-Shariah critical viewpoints. Considering the nature of this conceptual study, it adopts a qualitative methodology by using discourse and thematic analysis of the literature that can lay the foundation for future empirical testing on the topic.

The study found that managing risks faced by the Islamic financial sector while adapting to the digital era can be divided into two main clusters: risk mitigation for Shariah-compliant FinTech and risk avoidance for Shariah non-compliant innovations. The high level of gharar associated with current practices in both cryptocurrencies and smart contracts needs additional regulation and simulation before they can be reconsidered for market-wide application. Cloud computing, crowdfunding and big data have promising applications that can address the limitations of the Islamic finance industry, particularly in terms of reducing transactional costs.

This conceptual article offers some insights into the subject; nevertheless, it does not attempt to establish causation or generalise the results. Additional statistical testing is required prior to generalising the results.

Due to the difficulties experienced since its inception, the Islamic financial industry is in urgent need of the cutting-edge solutions required to gain a competitive edge in the market and get over the limits that came with its late entry into the financial sector. Mapping digital risks is imperative for the development of comprehensive prudential risk management strategies for the Islamic finance industry that can fix its problems and enable it to deliver the more favourable Shariah-based solutions, rather than remaining in the lower bands of Shariah compliance.

Findings of the study lay the foundation for empirical testing the volatility of FinTech innovations for the Islamic finance industry to reduce uncertainties and generate reliable forecasts. Scholarship on managing digital risks for Islamic financial institutions is still developing due to the covid global lockdown and the looming recession, and this study will help enhance theorisation necessary that can aspire economic recovery after current challenges.