Search results

The purpose of this paper is to consider borrower-specific characteristics to understand the factors affecting both the probability and quantum of loan default by individual borrowers under Islamic and conventional banking.

Borrower-specific characteristics that explain the probability of default may not necessarily be similar factors that determine the quantum of default. The authors therefore apply a Box-Cox double hurdle model to treat both the probability and quantum of default in a two-step approach. The authors also explain the differences in default risk and quantum of default between Islamic and conventional banking borrowers from their behavioral perspectives following the Sharia principles in financial transactions between lenders and borrowers. The authors use borrower-specific information of two separate bank branches of the United Arab Emirates that solely deal with either Islamic or conventional banking products.

The paper demonstrates that the probability of default and the quantum of default appear to be influenced by different set of client-specific factors. The results suggest that the probability of default does not vary significantly between Islamic and conventional banking borrowers. The evidence also shows that Islamic banking defaulters, compared to those in conventional banking, repay a large quantum of overdue when their financial leverage improves. However, they do not tend to reduce their outstanding quantum of overdue faster than conventional banking defaulters.

Availability of data from only two bank branches may limit the explanatory power of empirical findings.

The study findings will enable the Islamic and conventional banks to appropriately address Basel Capital requirements based on the borrowers’ behavior.

The study findings have the potential for Islamic and conventional financing institutions to be more flexible with equity in their lending practices.

Religious beliefs are crucial in borrower’s default behavior in Islamic banking.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze significant determinants to assess the probability of insureds’ intent to buy (ITB) insurance and willingness to pay (WTP) quantum of dollars for security benefits.

The authors use the Double Hurdle Model (DHM) and Neural Network (NN) architecture to analyze the insureds’ behavior for ITB and WTP. The authors apply these frameworks to all the 503 insureds of a branch of a leading insurer in the United Arab Emirates.

The DHM identified age, loans & liabilities, body mass index, travel outside the UAE, salary and country of origin (Middle Eastern and African) as significant determinants to predict WTP for social security benefits. In addition to these determinants, NN architecture identified insurance replacement, holding multiple citizenship, age of parents, mortgages, country of origin: Americas, length of travel, income of previous year and medical conditions of insured as additional important determinants to predict WTP for social security benefits; thus, NN is found to be superior to DHM due to its lowest RMSE and AIC in the holdout sample and also its flexibility and no assumptions unlike econometric models.

Insureds’ data used from one UAE Branch limit the generalizability of empirical findings.

The study findings will enable the insurers to appropriately design the insurance products that match the insurers’ behavior of ITB and WTP for social security benefits.

The study findings have the potential for insurance institutions to be more flexible in their insurance practices through public–private partnerships.

This is the authors’ original research work.

Wisdom is a very difficult construct to work with in research and practice. One reason for this is that wise people can deal with metaphysical questions and experience spiritual phenomena, both of which are hard to measure meaningfully. Although metaphysical and spiritual matters are not imponderable, they have significant measurement problems that are also part of the shortcomings of standard social science statistical frameworks. A second reason is that for many wisdom theorists, wisdom is context-dependent because wisdom is defined by and responds to what its context presents to it. We can therefore argue that wisdom is essentially context, which in quantum physics is theorised as a superposition of random variables that interact. This chapter, therefore, ponders the ‘immeasurable’ from the perspective of quantum-like social science and quantum theory to render wisdom, including its spirituality component, in formal mathematical models. The mathematical formalism of quantum physics allows for the presence of metaphysical phenomena in its ontological foundations and its mathematical models. This chapter, therefore, also presents an argument for understanding wisdom from the superposition perspective and, in particular, the internal interactions between random variables contained within it. If the challenge of measuring wisdom as a nondeterministic system is met, we may finally have an opportunity to measure wisdom in ways that embrace wisdom's complex ontology. A third reason is that wisdom depends on people making first-person subjective judgements. Subjectivity is central to many interpretations of quantum theory, and we can borrow the analytical formalism used in quantum physics for wisdom research. Finally, the chapter discusses future approaches to empirical wisdom research that adopt quantum-like social science methods.

We live in organizations addicted to problematic narratives. My purpose is to develop intelligent action understandings of how to care for organizations addicted to problematic elevator pitch narratives and one-sided stories by mapping quantum storytelling “Tamara-Land” forces ignored beneath and between them both (Boje, 1995). Tamara-land is the everyday activity of people in organizations chasing stories spatially distributed in different rooms, hallways, buildings that are temporally simultaneous, with materialities that are agential to the telling. For example, in this conference, the immersive theater into Tamara-Land is done in Steel Case open office spaces, as audience decides which actors to follow as they exit each scene. You cannot chase them all, and cannot be everywhere at once in this spacetimemattering. Quantum storytelling does not search for simple word or text messaging tag lines to explain open offices. Quantum storytelling uncovers deep behavior patterns of the spacetimemattering. “Quantum storytelling includes nondiscursive and behavioral aspects embodied in the storyteller’s life, in their living story behavioral-performative agentiality” (Boje, 1995, p. 114) and in nonhuman’s materialism featured in Karen Barad’s (2007) and Anete Strand’s material storytelling work. Quantum storytelling of Tamara-Land mapping at macro scale traces the interplay of people, planet, and profit (aka Triple Bottom Line, 3BL) but does not reduce it to imagined profitability metrics. I will critique 3BL for not proposing any method to measure people and planet first and by default reducing all dimensions to just bottom line profit measures. The consequence is that a runaway, maximizing fractal, known in socioeconomic work as the Taylor–Fayol–Weber rationality or “TFW virus” (Worley, Zardet, Bonnet, & Savall, 2015, pp. 23–24; Savall& Peron, 2015), attains functional structuralism (Alvesson & Spicer, 2012). In quantum storytelling fractal work, it’s “TFW fractal” profiteering that is destroying both planet and people, at an ever-accelerating rate (Boje & Henderson, 2014; Boje, 2015; Henderson & Boje, 2015). My contribution is to propose a different fractal pattern, the Mandelbrot fractal that actually sets limits on runaway fractal appetite. Both the 3BL and the VA techno-digital fractal narrative spiral more and more materials, energy, and people into the risk of an addictive TFW virus pattern, without limit.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the risk factors in homeowners from the individual household’s perspectives within the owner-occupied housing sector of The Netherlands. Risk in home ownership from mortgage providers’ perspectives has received tremendous attention than individual home owner’s perspectives in existing literature following the financial crisis in 2007/2008 within the euro zone.

The paper adopted a broader review of extent literature on the different concepts and views on risk in homeownership. These concepts are unified into a framework that enhances our understanding of the perceived sophisticated risk in owner-occupier with focus on The Netherlands.

From the perspective of the homeowner, two main types of risks were identified: default payment and property price risk. The paper has unearthed a quantum number of factors which underline the above risks. These factors relate to the initial amount of mortgage loan taken out, the future housing expenses and the income development of the owner-occupier. Family disintegration is identified, as one of the main causes of mortgage default and that of property price risk are mainly influenced by income levels, interest rates and conditions in the social and private rental sectors.

Findings of the paper are based on review of the extant literature in the context of the Dutch housing market. Possible rigorous situational analysis using other tools are recommended for further research.

This paper contributes to the much needed body of knowledge in the owner-occupied sector and provides a better understanding of risk in home ownership from the individual perspectives.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce new non‐classical implementations of neural networks (NNs). The developed implementations are performed in the quantum, nano, and optical domains to perform the required neural computing. The various implementations of the new NNs utilizing the introduced architectures are presented, and their extensions for the utilization in the non‐classical neural‐systolic networks are also introduced.

The introduced neural circuits utilize recent findings in the quantum, nano, and optical fields to implement the functionality of the basic NN. This includes the techniques of many‐valued quantum computing (MVQC), carbon nanotubes (CNT), and linear optics. The extensions of implementations to non‐classical neural‐systolic networks using the introduced neural‐systolic architectures are also presented.

Novel NN implementations are introduced in this paper. NN implementation using the general scheme of MVQC is presented. The proposed method uses the many‐valued quantum orthonormal computational basis states to implement such computations. Physical implementation of quantum computing (QC) is performed by controlling the potential to yield specific wavefunction as a result of solving the Schrödinger equation that governs the dynamics in the quantum domain. The CNT‐based implementation of logic NNs is also introduced. New implementations of logic NNs are also introduced that utilize new linear optical circuits which use coherent light beams to perform the functionality of the basic logic multiplexer by utilizing the properties of frequency, polarization, and incident angle. The implementations of non‐classical neural‐systolic networks using the introduced quantum, nano, and optical neural architectures are also presented.

The introduced NN implementations form new important directions in the NN realizations using the newly emerging technologies. Since the new quantum and optical implementations have the advantages of very high‐speed and low‐power consumption, and the nano implementation exists in very compact space where CNT‐based field effect transistor switches reliably using much less power than a silicon‐based device, the introduced implementations for non‐classical neural computation are new and interesting for the design in future technologies that require the optimal design specifications of super‐high speed, minimum power consumption, and minimum size, such as in low‐power control of autonomous robots, adiabatic low‐power very‐large‐scale integration circuit design for signal processing applications, QC, and nanotechnology.

This study aims to illustrate the special liability regime applying to a nuclear operator for damage caused to individuals, property and natural resources, after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) implemented the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage of 1963 through Federal Law No. 4 of 2012. This paper contrasts this special regime with the default regime of civil liability set out in the UAE Civil Code. The comparison helps clarify the legal nature of nuclear operator liability, the extent of protection it affords to the parties injured in a nuclear incident, the conditions under which it obtains, as well as the different damage headings it allows.

This paper is a desk-based legal research.

The main novelties enshrined in the special liability regime for nuclear facility operators are the adoption of an objective approach (strict liability) and the introduction of exceptions different from those contemplated in the default regime spelled out in the UAE Civil Code, thereby affording greater protection to victims of nuclear leakages.

This paper is a first in-depth commentary of UAE Federal Law No. 4 of 2012 Concerning Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage. Considering the UAE’s dualistic approach to the implementation of international obligations, and the present lack of reliable alternative avenues towards compensation beyond private operator liability, the overview provided here will be of value to regional and international practitioners – including from neighbouring countries to the UAE (Oman, Qatar, Bahrain) – that are not currently signatories to any convention on nuclear liability.

An ecologically sustainable future calls for fruitful dialogues between spirituality, modern science and policymaking at large. What could be that connects them all? We found out that ideas about holism exist across time, space, culture and thinkers – ranging from mathematics, philosophy, sociology, medicine, education, religion and quantum physics to finding its roots in ancient Indian Vedic tradition and later usage in Greek and Roman cultures.

This chapter takes a look at the history and intricacies of two seemingly distinct but interconnected fields – spirituality and modern science, particularly quantum science – with an aim to uncover what these fields can teach us about the idea of holism. This chapter, therefore, highlights one of the most fundamental and profound spiritual principles of the unity and interconnectedness of the entire universe – encapsulated in the concept of holism – and its practical applications in approaching sustainable development. We hope to ignite further research on this topic.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how and why individuals involved in executive remuneration (top pay) decision-making consider quantum as being appropriate rather than excessive, theorised under the rubric of accountability.

In-depth interviews were conducted with non-executive directors (NEDs) serving on remuneration committees (Remcos), institutional investors, their external advisers and internal HR reward experts. Transcripts were analysed using NVivo and the Gioia qualitative methodology.

Defining, measuring and applying performance conditionality in the determination of top pay quantum such that it aligns with company strategy/culture and values, as well as individual recipient motivations, is difficult. While creative approaches to setting top pay so as to attract, retain and motivate key personnel are welcomed, these risk Remco members' personal/organisational reputations. Members recognise disconnection between top pay quantum and general pay levels and how the media highlights social inequality leading to public distrust. They believe they can contribute to more socially acceptable quantum by applying their own values in top pay decision-making.

Sanctions-based, trust-based and selection/peer networks/felt-based accountability theory is used to explain decision-makers’ actions when determining top pay quantum. This paper extends felt accountability theory to encompass public/societal accountability in the context of the appropriateness of top pay quantum decisions.

To develop a theory of concepts that solves the combination problem, i.e. to deliver a description of the combination of concepts. We also investigate the so‐called “pet fish problem” in concept research.

The set of contexts and properties of a concept are embedded in the complex Hilbert space of quantum mechanics. States are unit vectors or density operators and context and properties are orthogonal projections.

The way calculations are done in Hilbert space makes it possible to model how context influences the state of a concept. Moreover, a solution to the combination problem is proposed. Using the tensor product, a natural product in Hilbert space mathematics, a procedure for describing combined concepts is elaborated. This procedure also provides a solution to the pet‐fish problem, and it allows the modeling of an arbitrary number of combined concepts. By way of example, a model for a simple sentence containing a subject, a predicate and an object, is presented.

The combination problem is considered to be one of the crucial unsolved problems in concept research. Also the pet‐fish problem has not been solved by earlier attempts of modeling.