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Exchange rate uncertainty leads to an indecisive environment for imports and exports that would condense international trade, foreign direct investment, trade earnings, trade volumes, economic growth and welfare. This study aims to examine, empirically, the effect of exchange rate uncertainty on bilateral trade performance, focusing on eight SAARC member economies using the popular modified gravity model of trade.

The paper includes eight SAARC members – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka panel data set over the period 2005–2018. The authors consider both standardized value (standard deviation) and conditional variance model to determine volatility of exchange rate. Primarily, ordinary least squares, random effects and fixed effects estimation techniques are employed to investigate the impact of exchange rate volatility. Endogeneity and robustness of the findings have been tested using the simultaneity-adjusted model and dynamic panel data two-step system GMM estimation techniques.

Empirical findings endorse the view that exchange rate volatility lowers trade flows in the SAARC regions. However, this adverse effect of exchange rate uncertainty on trade is pretty small. The negative correlation between exchange rate volatility and bilateral trade remains consistent and significant after controlling of simultaneous causality, autocorrelation, year effects, country-pair heterogeneity and endogeneity irrespective of panel data estimation techniques and different measures of volatility.

The present paper is original work.

This study explores the importance of and vulnerabilities in deploying physical access control (PAC) devices in a typical university setting.

The study adopts face-to-face and telephone interviews. This study uses a semi-structured interview guide to solicit the views of 25 interviewees on the subject under consideration. Qualitative responses to the interview are thematically analyzed using NVivo 11 Pro analysis application software.

The findings reveal five importance and seven vulnerabilities in the deployment of PAC devices in the institution. Key among the importance of deploying the devices are “prevent unwanted premise access or intrusions,” “prevent disruptions to university/staff operations on campus” and “protect students and staff from outside intruders.” Key among the identified vulnerabilities are “tailgating”, “delay in emergent cases” and “power outage may affect its usage.”

This study offers insight into a rare area of study, especially in the Sub-Saharan Africa region. Furthermore, the study contributes to the state-of-the-art importance and vulnerabilities in deploying PAC devices in daily human activities. The study is valuable in that it has the potential to establish a foundation for future studies that may delve into investigating issues associated with the deployment of PAC devices.

The chapter summarizes key literature, including emerging ideas, that is pertinent to the question of how organizations and their leadership deal with and are resilient through crises – highlighting what works in surviving unexpected crises. The chapter presents an illustration of organizational response; it concludes with an analysis of what is missing from the literature and recommends a path forward to expanding actionable knowledge in this area. Multiple, interdependent factors that foster resilience are identified including (1) being sensitive to possible threats – even seemingly small failures, (2) not relying on simple interpretations of events but rather seeking diversity to create a complete view of the environment, (3) leadership that embraces communication, transparency, and continuous learning, (4) valuing expertise and allowing expert staff to make decisions during a crisis, and (5) a cultural commitment to a resiliency mindset that accepts failures as opportunities to learn and improve. Emerging concepts that may foster resilience but require more research include managing paradox, emotional ambivalence and diversity. Additional areas for fruitful research include: the impact of short-term versus long-term, or successive, crises; external versus internal shocks and the framing of the source of shocks; how crisis affect the pace of innovation and change; the role of diversity in organizational responses to crises; and a set of methodological opportunities to leverage natural experiments or simulations in ways that allow for longitudinal data illuminating the full cycle of crises across organizations from anticipation, to response, to longer-term adaptation to the new normal.

Although employees' creativity is vital for firm innovation and overall performance, little is done to examine the potential association between creativity and employment. This paper investigates the contribution of employees' creativity, process and product innovations to firm-level employment growth.

The authors use data from World Bank Enterprise Survey and Innovation Follow-up Survey on 9503 firms covering the period 2012–2015 in 11 countries from sub-Saharan Africa and Heckman's two-stage estimation model.

This study's results indicate a positive role of creativity on firm-level employment growth. In addition, the authors find evidence for a complementary effect arising from the combination of creativity with managerial experience, staff level of education and their associated skills, in contrast, combining creativity with internal or external R&D results in a substitution effect. Interestingly, these synergy effects are pronounced for SMEs but absent for large firms.

Policy makers in developing economies of sub-Saharan Africa should stimulate company management to use free time offered to employees to be creative in the workplace as one of their key strategies to stimulate employment growth. This strategy is expected to be particularly fruitful among SMEs having some managerial experience and skilled stuff.

In contribution to innovative work practices and workforce creativity, the authors demonstrate that providing employees with free time could be an alternative way to enhance the focal firms' performance.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into publication practices from the perspective of academics working within four disciplinary communities: biosciences, astronomy/physics, education and history. The paper explores the ways in which these multiple overlapping communities intersect with the journal landscape and the implications for the adoption and use of new players in the scholarly communication system, particularly open-access mega-journals (OAMJs). OAMJs (e.g. PLOS ONE and Scientific Reports) are large, broad scope, open-access journals that base editorial decisions solely on the technical/scientific soundness of the article.

Focus groups with active researchers in these fields were held in five UK Higher Education Institutions across Great Britain, and were complemented by interviews with pro-vice-chancellors for research at each institution.

A strong finding to emerge from the data is the notion of researchers belonging to multiple overlapping communities, with some inherent tensions in meeting the requirements for these different audiences. Researcher perceptions of evaluation mechanisms were found to play a major role in attitudes towards OAMJs, and interviews with the pro-vice-chancellors for research indicate that there is a difference between researchers’ perceptions and the values embedded in institutional frameworks.

This is the first purely qualitative study relating to researcher perspectives on OAMJs. The findings of the paper will be of interest to publishers, policy-makers, research managers and academics.

Crisis services personnel are frequently deployed around the globe under highly demanding conditions. This raises the need to better understand the deployment process and more especially, sustainable reintegration after deployment. Despite recent research efforts, the study of the post-deployment stage, more specifically the reintegration process, remains fragmented and limited. To address these limitations, this review aims at (1) describing how reintegration is conceptualised and measured in the existing literature, (2) identifying what dimensions are associated with the reintegration process and (3) identifying what we know about the process of reintegration in terms of timing and phases.

Following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) protocol, the authors identified 5,859 documents across several scientific databases published between 1995 and 2021. Based on predefined eligibility criteria, 104 documents were yielded.

Research has primarily focused on descriptive studies of negative individual and interpersonal outcomes after deployment. However, this review indicates that reintegration is dynamic, multi-sector, multidimensional and dual. Each of its phases and dimensions is associated with distinct challenges.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research that investigates reintegration among different crisis services and provides an integrative social-ecological framework that identifies the different dimensions and challenges of this process.

Academic integrity is of great importance to insure a consistent determination of what constitutes plagiarism across regions of the world. Academic integrity research spans a global scale and regardless of where the researcher is from, they are building on a pool of research findings that have no physical boundaries. Basic agreed upon research standards and fundamentals must be established to ensure the validity and reliability of the body of academic research. Problematic to the situation are differences in cultural definitions of what constitutes plagiarism. Therefore, this study aimed to build the body of knowledge on the current condition of plagiarism levels as well as perform a sample comparison of some patterns in Eastern and Western culture. A document analysis was conducted for two universities, one in the USA and one in Saudi Arabia. In addition, a survey was conducted in an academic context in Saudi Arabia to investigate students’ and faculty’s understanding of what constitutes plagiarism. It was predicted that Saudi Arabia is shifting towards a Westernized definition of plagiarism; results partially supported this hypothesis.

ﺗﻌ ﺗﺑ ر اﻟﻧز ا ھﺔ ا ﻷﻛﺎ دﯾ ﻣﯾﺔ ذا ت أ ھﻣﯾ ﺔ ﻛﺑﯾ رة ﻟ ﺿ ﻣﺎ ن ﺗ ﺣدﯾد ﺛﺎﺑ ت ﻟ ﻣﺎ ﯾ ﺷﻛ ل ا ﻻﻧﺗ ﺣﺎ ل ﻋﺑ ر ﻣﻧﺎ طق اﻟ ﻌﺎﻟ م. ﺗ ﻣﺗد أﺑ ﺣﺎ ث اﻟﻧ زا ھﺔ ا ﻷﻛﺎ دﯾ ﻣﯾ ﺔ ﻋﻠ ﻰ ﻧ طﺎ ق ﻋﺎﻟ ﻣ ﻲ وﺑ ﻐ ض اﻟﻧ ظر ﻋن اﻟ ﻣﻛﺎ ن اﻟذ ي ﯾﻧﺗ ﻣ ﻲ إﻟﯾﮫ اﻟﺑﺎ ﺣ ث، ﻓﮭ ﻲ ﺗ ﻌﺗ ﻣد ﻋﻠ ﻰ ﻣ ﺟﻣوﻋﺔ ﻣ ن ﻧﺗﺎﺋ ﺞ ا ﻷﺑ ﺣﺎ ث اﻟﺗ ﻲ ﻻ ﺗ وﺟد ﻟ ﮭﺎ ﺣد ود ﻣﺎدﯾﺔ. ﯾ ﺟ ب و ﺿﻊ اﻟﻣﻌﺎﯾﯾر ا ﻷﺳﺎ ﺳﯾﺔ اﻟﻣﺗﻔ ق ﻋﻠﯾﮭﺎ وا ﻷﺳﺎ ﺳﯾﺎ ت ﻟ ﺿﻣﺎ ن ﺻﺣﺔ وﻣوﺛوﻗﯾﺔ ھﯾﺋﺔ اﻟﺑ ﺣث ا ﻷﻛﺎدﯾﻣﻲ. ا ﻹﺷﻛﺎﻟﯾﺔ ﻓ ﻲ اﻟﻣو ﻗ ف ھ ﻲ ا ﺧ ﺗ ﻼ ﻓﺎ ت ﻓ ﻲ اﻟ ﺗ ﻌر ﯾﻔﺎ ت اﻟ ﺛﻘ ﺎﻓﯾ ﺔ ﻟ ﻣﺎ ﯾ ﺷ ﻛ ل ا ﻻ ﻧﺗ ﺣ ﺎ ل . وﻟ ذﻟ ك ، ھدﻓ ت ھذه اﻟ د را ﺳﺔ إﻟ ﻰ ﺑﻧﺎ ء ﺟﺳد اﻟ ﻣﻌرﻓﺔ ﺣول اﻟ ﺣﺎﻟ ﺔ اﻟ را ھﻧ ﺔ ﻟﻣﺳﺗ وﯾﺎ ت ا ﻻﻧﺗ ﺣﺎ ل وﻛذﻟ ك إ ﺟرا ء ﻣﻘﺎ رﻧ ﺔ ﻧ ﻣوذ ﺟﯾ ﺔ ﻟﺑﻌ ض ا ﻷﻧﻣﺎ ط ﻓ ﻲ اﻟﺛﻘﺎﻓﺔ اﻟ ﺷرﻗﯾ ﺔ واﻟ ﻐرﺑ ﯾ ﺔ. ﺗم إ ﺟرا ء ﺗ ﺣﻠﯾ ل ﻟﻠ وﺛﺎﺋ ق ﻟ ﺟﺎ ﻣﻌﺗﯾ ن، وا ﺣدة ﻓ ﻲ اﻟ وﻻﯾﺎ ت اﻟ ﻣﺗ ﺣدة ا ﻷﻣرﯾ ﻛﯾ ﺔ ووا ﺣدة ﻓ ﻲ اﻟ ﻣﻣﻠ ﻛﺔ اﻟ ﻌرﺑ ﯾ ﺔ اﻟ ﺳﻌودﯾ ﺔ. ﺑﺎ ﻹ ﺿ ﺎﻓﺔ إﻟ ﻰ ذﻟ ك، أ ﺟرﯾ ت د را ﺳﺔ ا ﺳﺗﻘ ﺻ ﺎﺋﯾ ﺔ ﻓ ﻲ ﺳﯾﺎ ق أﻛ ﺎ دﯾﻣﻲ ﻓ ﻲ اﻟ ﻣﻣﻠﻛﺔ اﻟ ﻌرﺑﯾ ﺔ اﻟ ﺳﻌودﯾ ﺔ ﻟﻠﺗ ﺣﻘﯾ ق ﻓ ﻲ ﻓﮭم اﻟ طﻼب وھﯾﺋ ﺔ اﻟﺗد رﯾ س ﻟ ﻣﺎ ﯾ ﺷﻛ ل ا ﻻﻧﺗ ﺣﺎ ل. ﻛﺎ ن ﻣ ن اﻟ ﻣﺗ وﻗ ﻊ أ ن ﺗﺗﺟ ﮫ اﻟﻣﻣﻠ ﻛﺔ اﻟﻌر ﺑﯾ ﺔ اﻟﺳ ﻌو دﯾ ﺔ ﻧﺣو ﺗﻌرﯾ ف اﻟ ﻐرﺑﯾﯾ ن ﻟ ﻼﻧﺗﺣ ﺎ ل وﻗ د د ﻋﻣ ت اﻟ ﻧﺗ ﺎﺋﺞ ھذه اﻟﻔ ر ﺿ ﯾﺔ ﺟز ﺋﯾﺎ.

This paper aims to demonstrate that state shareholders are confronted with contradictory logics leading to institutional contradictions that activist shareholders can exploit. The competing logics of the state as shareholder and their impact on corporate governance and shareholder activism offer fertile grounds for research advances in Coordinated Market Economies (CMEs).

Through an extensive literature review of state ownership, institutional contradictions and shareholder activism, this paper analyzes two case studies involving the French State as shareholder.

In the French context, these two cases illustrate how institutional contradictions result in opportunities for shareholder activism. By focusing on the institutional contradictions of the state shareholder, this investigation suggests a need for experimental research to observe how shareholder activists adapt to each institutional change in CMEs. This experimentation can help policymakers to avoid creating additional conditions that shareholder activists can exploit.

This focuses only on France and its state shareholdings. To generalize results, studies of other CMEs and state shareholders are needed.

Policymakers should consider all legislative proposals for their potential to deviate from corporate governance practice by experimenting with them in a laboratory setting. Shareholder activists can compare state shareholders’ actions against the state’s legislation to emphasize institutional contradictions that counter minority shareholders’ rights.

This research is the first to analyze how the state as shareholder can exploit its competing logics to resist against shareholder activism and support management or to become itself a shareholder activist.