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This study aims to add to the understanding of the interactive nature of brand love by using a multilayer perspective that incorporates individual, group and societal contexts.

The qualitative empirical study uses abductive reasoning. Its theories and conclusions are grounded in naturally occurring data from an online brand community. The approach revealed new interactive processes of brand love.

This study extends our understanding of the interactive nature of brand love by adopting a layered perspective incorporating micro- (individual), meso- (in-group), macro- (in-group vs out-group) and mega-layer (societal) social dynamics that complements the predominant focus on individual psychological processes. It challenges the linear, monodirectional trajectory approach to brand love, suggesting that brand love is in constant flux as individuals move across the layers in their identification with the brand.

This study provides data from one destination brand in Finland. Future studies could consider other types of brands and contexts in other countries and cultures.

This study shows brand managers that brand lovers can be divided into subgroups with distinct drivers of their love to which brand managers should attend.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to describe the interactive nature of brand love through interactions between and within four layers of brand love. Furthermore, this study enhances our understanding of the contradictory aspects of brand love.

The study seeks to find the effect of financial leverage on the firm performance of non-financial companies listed in the Tokyo stock market.

The study collected data from 263 companies in the automobile and industrial producer sectors listed on the Tokyo stock exchange between 2001 and 2021. The generalized method of moments was used to estimate the effect of leverage on financial performance due to its ability to overcome the problems of endogeneity and autocorrelation.

The study found that the equity multiplier has a positive and statistically significant effect on return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and earning per share (EPS). The study discovered that the interest coverage ratio has a positive and statistically significant effect on ROA, ROE, EPS and Tobin’s Q. The results revealed that the degree of financial leverage and debt to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) have a negative and statistically significant effect on ROE, EPS and Tobin’s Q. The study also found that the capitalization ratios of the firms have a negative and statistically significant effect on ROA, ROE, EPS and Tobin’s Q.

The use of debt financing, which presents financial leverage, indicates that the companies can make enough earnings to pay off the interest and principal (debt service obligations), which were shown by the interest coverage ratio, as well as to pay all the long-term fixed expenses, which were shown by the fixed charge coverage ratio. Interest and fixed charge coverage have a positive statistically significant effect on the financial performance of automobile and industrial producer companies.

The study focused on the effect of financial leverage on financial performance by relying on pecking and trade-off theories to contribute to the existing body of literature in finance.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of leadership development programmes, underpinned by Transformational Learning Theory (TLT).

A corpus-informed analysis was conducted using survey data from 690 participants. Data were collected from participants’ responses to the question “please tell us about the impact of your overall experience”, which culminated in a combined corpus of 75,053 words.

Findings identified patterns of language clustered around the following frequently used word types, namely, confidence; influence; self-awareness; insight; and impact.

This in-depth qualitative evaluation of participants’ feedback has provided insight into how TLT can be applied to develop future health-care leaders. The extent to which learning has had a transformational impact at the individual level, in relation to their perceived ability to influence, holds promise for the wider impact of this group in relation to policy, practice and the promotion of clinical excellence in the future. However, the latter can only be ascertained by undertaking further realist evaluation and longitudinal study to understand the mechanisms by which transformational learning occurs and is successfully translated to influence in practice.

Previous research has expounded traditional leadership theories to guide the practice of health-care leadership development. The paper goes some way to demonstrate the impact of using the principles of TLT within health-care leadership development programmes. The approach taken by The Florence Nightingale Foundation has the potential to generate confident leaders who may be instrumental in creating positive changes across various clinical environments.

This paper aims to explore how parasocial relationships with Korean celebrity endorsers on social media result in brand credibility and loyalty.

The participants were identified through a purposive sampling approach, and they were composed of consumers who purchased Korean-celebrity-endorsed products and services of a telecommunications company. The hypothesized relationships were gauged using a predictive approach as a research design via partial least squares (PLS) path modeling.

The findings show that all hypothesized relationships are supported. In particular, social media interaction was found to have a substantial, positive and significant effect on self-disclosure. Moreover, self-disclosure has a considerably significant and direct effect on parasocial relationships and was found to indirectly affect the link between social media interactions and parasocial relationships. The results further reveal that social media interactions and parasocial relationships predict source trustworthiness, leading to brand credibility and loyalty.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present undertaking is the only study that examined how parasocial relationships on social media are built when foreign celebrities, in this case, the well-known Korean popular group BTS, endorse telecommunications products and services.

La presente investigación explora cómo las relaciones parasociales con celebridades coreanas en las redes sociales generan credibilidad de marca y lealtad.

Los participantes se identificaron mediante un muestreo intencional y estaban compuestos por consumidores que compraban productos y servicios de una empresa de telecomunicaciones avalados por famosos coreanos. Las relaciones hipotetizadas se midieron utilizando un enfoque predictivo como diseño de investigación mediante un modelo de mínimos cuadrados parciales (PLS).

Los resultados muestran que todas las relaciones hipotetizadas se confirman. En particular, la interacción con los medios sociales tiene un efecto sustancial, positivo y significativo en la autodivulgación. Además, la autodivulgación tiene un efecto considerablemente significativo y directo en las relaciones parasociales y se descubrió que afecta indirectamente al vínculo entre las interacciones en los medios sociales y las relaciones parasociales. Los resultados revelan además que las interacciones en los medios sociales y las relaciones parasociales predicen la fiabilidad de la fuente, lo que conduce a la credibilidad de la marca y a la lealtad.

El presente trabajo es el único estudio que examina cómo se construyen las relaciones parasociales en los medios sociales cuando celebridades extranjeras, en este caso, el conocido grupo popular coreano BTS, promocionan productos y servicios de telecomunicaciones.

本研究探讨了在社交媒体上与韩国名人的寄生关系如何建立品牌可信度和忠诚度。

通过目的性抽样确定参与者, 包括购买韩国名人代言的电信公司产品和服务的消费者。研究设计使用偏最小二乘法（PLS）模型对假设关系进行预测测量。

研究结果表明, 所有假设关系都得到了证实。特别是, 社交媒体互动对自我披露具有实质性的、积极的和显著的影响。此外, 自我披露对寄生关系也有明显的直接影响, 并被发现间接影响社交媒体互动与寄生关系之间的联系。研究结果进一步揭示了社会化媒体互动和寄生关系能够预测来源的可信度, 从而提高品牌可信度和忠诚度。

研究结果表明, 所有假设的关系都得到了证实。特别是, 社交媒体互动对自我披露具有实质性的、积极的和显著的影响。此外, 自我披露对寄生关系也有明显的直接影响, 并被发现间接影响社交媒体互动和寄生关系之间的联系。研究结果进一步揭示了社会化媒体互动和寄生关系能够预测来源的可信度, 从而提高品牌可信度和忠诚度。

本文是唯一一篇研究外国名人在社交媒体上推广电信产品和服务时如何建立寄生社会关系的研究。

This article aims to investigate how institutional characteristics affect the level of financial development of economies collectively and compare between developed and undeveloped economies.

A dynamic panel with 131 countries, including developed and developing ones, was utilized; the estimators of the generalized method of moments system (GMM system) model were selected because they have econometric characteristics more suitable for analysis, providing superior statistical precision compared to traditional linear estimation methods.

The results from the full panel suggest that concrete and well-defined institutions are important for financial development, confirming previous research, with a more limited scope than the present work.

Limitations of this research include the availability of data for all countries worldwide, which would make the research broader and more complete.

A panel of countries was used, divided into developed and developing countries, to analyze the impact of institutional variables on the financial development of these countries, which is one of the differentiators of this work. Another differentiator of this research is the presentation of estimates in six different configurations, with emphasis on the GMM system model in one and two steps, allowing for comparison between results.

The authors investigate the impact of the stringency of environmental policy on the financial performance of European automobile manufacturers. This paper contributes to the debate about the impact of environmental policy on a firm's competitive performance.

The authors use cross-country sector-level panel data for 71 firms from 18 European countries from 2010 to 2019. The authors apply a fixed-effect model and then, to address the endogeneity issues, the authors use the generalized method of moments (GMM) model. To further examine the validity of the results, the authors use a data-mining modeling approach as a robustness test.

By considering the dynamic impact of environmental policy and overcoming the endogeneity issues, the results show that the impact of the stringency of environmental policy on a firm's financial performance depends on the time horizon: the stringency of environmental policy has a short-term negative impact but a long-term positive impact on a firm's financial performance.

The authors limited the study to the auto industry in Europe. In addition, future research could consider the impact of environmental policy on other financial performance indicators such as Return on Sales or Return on Equity. Also, it would be interesting to conduct a similar study in the United States or China using a firm-level data set to examine the robustness of the results.

Stringency of environmental policy improves a firm's financial performance in the long term. It is essential for firms and managers to consider the dynamic impacts of environmental policy on their financial performance and adopt a long-term perspective when evaluating the costs and benefits of complying with environmental regulations. The findings help management develop a long-term vision for investment and budget allocation. The results support management's view for strategic decision-making against the common budget argument and challenges for stockholders when it comes to adopting new technologies and planning long-term investment.

It is crucial for firms to recognize the broader societal benefits that come with environmental policy. Firms must not only focus on their financial performance but also on their social responsibility to protect the environment and contribute to the greater good. Therefore, firms must take a long-term perspective and recognize the broader societal benefits of environmental policy in order to make informed decisions that support both their financial success and their social responsibility.

This paper contributes to the literature by helping to explain the inconsistent results of studies about the impact of environmental policy on a firm's competitiveness. Using a firm's financial performance as one of the main metrics for competitiveness, this study takes into account both endogeneity and contemporaneity in evaluating the impact of the stringency of environmental policy on a firm's financial performance.

International Journal of Emerging Markets (IJoEM) is a leading journal that publishes high-quality research focused on emerging markets. In 2020, IJoEM celebrated its fifteenth anniversary, and the objective of this paper is to conduct a retrospective analysis to commensurate IJoEM's milestone.

Data used in this study were extracted using the Scopus database. Bibliometric analysis, using several indicators, is adopted to reveal the major trends and themes of a journal. Mapping of bibliographic data is carried using VOSviewer.

Study findings indicate that IJoEM has been growing for publications and citations since its inception. Four significant research directions emerged, i.e. consumer behaviour, financial markets, financial institutions and corporate governance and strategic dimensions based on cluster analysis of IJoEM's publications. The identified future research directions are focused on emergent investments opportunities, trends in behavioural finance, emerging role technology-financial companies, changing trends in corporate governance and the rising importance of strategic management in emerging markets.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to conduct a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of IJoEM. The study presents the key themes and trends emerging from a leading journal considered a high-quality research journal for research on emerging markets by academicians, scholars and practitioners.

This paper aims to explore to what extent can the Saudi–US alliance endure, given the several challenges it has faced over the past decade. Using a conceptual framework from the alliance theory, the paper will trace the historical evolution of the alliance between the two countries, then will identify some of the challenges that have faced the alliance on both the regional and bilateral levels, and finally will assess the impact of these challenges on the resilience of the Saudi–US alliance.

This paper will use the alliance theory literature to analyze the challenges and the resilience of the Saudi–US relations.

The Saudi–US alliance has encountered several challenges in the past decade such as the Arab spring, the Iranian nuclear deal and the Civil War in Syria and Yemen. However, this alliance proved to be resilient, and the strategic partnership between the two countries managed to overcome these challenges.

The importance of this paper stems from the fact that the USA and the Saudi Arabia are two pivotal countries, and their relationship affects regional and international dynamics. The paper contributes to the literature on the Saudi–US bilateral relations as well as their views on recent regional issues such as the Arab Spring, the civil war in Yemen and Syria. Assessing the limits and potentials of the alliance between the two countries could also help us understand the future of regional developments in the Middle East.