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This study aims to examine the impact of board characteristics on debt choice.

The sample comprises of unique nonfinancial firms listed in the FTSE 350 over the period 2011–2018. This study uses Tobit and OLS regressions to check the impact of board characteristics on debt choice. The results are robust to the battery of robust checks.

This study finds that board size and board independence are positively associated with public debt. However, CEO duality and board meetings frequency are inversely associated with public debt. Overall, the findings are consistent with the “financial intermediation theory” that the firms with weak governance rely on bank financing, and firms with better corporate governance go for public debt.

This study offers significant insights for investors and policymakers.

This study offers new insights regarding the role of board characteristics in firms’ debt choice by showing the significant impact of board characteristics on debt choice. The findings indicate that the board’s efficient internal monitoring may substitute external monitoring by the bank.

Natural gas makes up about 50 per cent of Pakistan's energy consumption, which is decreasing at an alarming pace, making Karachi – the largest city of Pakistan – one of the major victims of natural gas shortfall. The purpose of this paper is to model natural gas demand and supply using geographic information systems.

Sui Southern Gas Company datasets were used to derive annual per capita gas usages and to analyze the capacity of gas supplies. Union Council is taken as a smallest and basic analytical administrative spatial unit for appraisal of badly affected, with insufficient, low and better gas supply regions.

Results show that the per capita demand for natural gas is higher in high class residential areas while supply is lowest for upper middle and lower middle class residential area populations. Only 19 per cent of the total residential areas are expected to be free from gas shortfalls. About 53 per cent of residential areas are facing the problem of low gas availability; and 3 per cent and 11 per cent areas are under stress of badly affected and insufficient gas supply, respectively.

This research shows an example of constructing a Geographic Information System (GIS)‐based gas demand and supply model that can be used for building strategic guidelines for top‐level planners, engineers and decision makers at the micro‐level. This is not a “deep” paper, but it works in identifying a problem and presenting a quantitative way forward. This paper will have significant impact both on society and academia, as this innovative technology and its implementation on gas utility has happened for the first time in Pakistan. Furthermore, in the international literature this has also been in infancy and will open new avenues of research, especially in developing countries. The work would certainly be applicable for other consumer‐based utilities such as electricity, telecommunication, sewerage and municipal water and they would all benefit from it substantially.

Extending the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), this study investigates the impact of social media influencers (SMI) on consumer well-being (CW) as well as the influence of CW on purchase intention.

A between-subjects experiment (macro- vs mega-influencer) was conducted to assess the proposed hypotheses. A total of 190 consumers participated in the experiment, and SmartPLS 3.3 was used for multigroup analyses.

Overall, argument quality (AQ), source's credibility (SC) and influencer's kindness positively predict CW, and CW predicts purchase intention. It was also found that SC is more important when information comes from a mega-influencer, whilst kindness is essential for a macro-influencer.

The results of this study imply that CW should be an essential component of influencer marketing strategy. Marketing managers should hire credible and kind influencers who can produce quality arguments. Additionally, the selection of SMI (macro- vs mega-influencer) should be aligned with the marketing objective and type of persuasion required.

This is one of the early attempts to extend ELM by introducing influencer kindness as a peripheral cue. Moreover, the study offers novelty by examining the effects of influencer characteristics (AQ, SC and kindness) on CW and comparing these effects across macro- and mega-influencers.

藉著擴展詳儘可能性模型, 本研究擬探討網絡紅人對消費者福祉的影響, 以及消費者福祉對購買意圖的影響。

研究人員進行被試間實驗 (中網紅對大型網紅) , 以對提出的假設進行評價。190名消費者參與實驗, 研究人員使用SmartPLS 3.3 進行多群組分析。

總的來說, 論點品質、來源可信度和網紅的仁慈體貼, 均能積極預測消費者福祉, 而消費者福祉亦可預測購買意圖。研究人員亦發現, 若資訊是來自大型網紅的話, 來源可信度則更形重要, 而對中網紅來說, 仁慈體貼則是不可或缺的。

研究結果暗示, 消費者福祉應是網紅市場營銷戰略的基本要素。市場經理應僱用可靠、仁慈體貼、並能提出優質論點的網紅。而且, 網絡紅人 (中網紅對大型網紅) 的挑選, 必須與營銷目標和說服的種類互相協調。

本研究為早期的嘗試, 利用引進網絡紅人的仁慈體貼作為周邊線索, 來擴展詳儘可能性模型。另外, 本研究探討網絡紅人的特徵 (論點品質、來源可信度和仁慈體貼) 會如何影響消費者福祉; 研究人員亦跨中網紅和大型網紅, 對這些影響進行比較, 就此而言, 本研究提供了創新的研究意念。

This study aims to investigate the influence of personality characteristics (risk-aversion and self-consciousness) on skepticism toward online services information (STOSI), consumer stress and health.

A between-subjects experiment (n = 228) was designed to compare effects based on third-party organization endorsement (TPO endorsed vs nonendorsed).

Results revealed that personality characteristics positively influenced STOSI, which in turn escalated consumer stress. Furthermore, consumer stress predicted detrimental effects on consumer health (increased blood pressure and heartbeat). Regarding TPO endorsements, both the risk-aversive and self-conscious consumers showed lesser STOSI when exposed to TPO-endorsed ads compared with nonendorsed ads.

This study is one of the first to examine the effects of consumer personality on consumer health through STOSI and consumer stress. In addition, the remedial roles of TPO in coping with STOSI and consumer stress also accumulate to the novelty of this study.

In this study, the authors analyze the impact of geopolitics risk on Sukuk, Islamic and composite stocks, oil and gold markets and portfolio diversification implications during the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia–Ukraine conflict period.

The study used a mix of wavelet-based approaches, including continuous wavelet transformation and discrete wavelet transformation. The analysis used data from the Geopolitical Risk index (GP{R), Dow Jones Sukuk index (SUKUK), Dow Jones Islamic index (DJII), Dow Jones composite index (DJCI), one of the top crude oil benchmarks which is based on the Europe (BRENT) (oil fields in the North Sea between the Shetland Island and Norway), and Global Gold Price Index (gold) from May 31, 2012, to June 13, 2022.

The results of the study indicate that during the COVID-19 and Russia–Ukraine conflict period geopolitical risk (GPR) was in the leading position, where BRENT confirmed the lagging relationship. On the other hand, during the COVID-19 pandemic period, SUKUK, DJII and DJCI are in the leading position, where GPR confirms the lagging position.

The present study is unique in three respects. First, the authors revisit the influence of GPR on global asset markets such as Islamic stocks, Islamic bonds, conventional stocks, oil and gold. Second, the authors use the wavelet power spectrum and coherence analysis to determine the level of reliance based on time and frequency features. Third, the authors conduct an empirical study that includes recent endogenous shocks generated by health crises such as the COVID-19 epidemic, as well as shocks caused by the geopolitical danger of a war between Russia and Ukraine.

1. We analyze the impact of geopolitics risk on Sukuk, Islamic and composite stocks, oil and gold markets and portfolio diversification implications during the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia–Ukraine conflict period.

2. The results of the wavelet-based approach show that Dow Jones composite and Islamic indexes have observed the highest mean return during the study period.

3. GPR and BRENT are estimated to have the highest amount of risk throughout the observation period.

4. Dow Jones Sukuk, Islamic and composite stock show similar trend of volatility during the COVID-19 pandemic period and comparatively gold observes lower variance during the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia–Ukraine conflict.

We analyze the impact of geopolitics risk on Sukuk, Islamic and composite stocks, oil and gold markets and portfolio diversification implications during the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia–Ukraine conflict period.

The results of the wavelet-based approach show that Dow Jones composite and Islamic indexes have observed the highest mean return during the study period.

GPR and BRENT are estimated to have the highest amount of risk throughout the observation period.

Dow Jones Sukuk, Islamic and composite stock show similar trend of volatility during the COVID-19 pandemic period and comparatively gold observes lower variance during the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia–Ukraine conflict.

The present study aims to compare the effect of international paid remittances on financial development in three Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries from 1985 to 2020.

The study applied the bound cointegration technique and the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) method for long- and short-run estimations as well as diagnostic tests to increase robustness.

The ARDL long-run results showed that international paid remittances had a significant negative effect on financial development in Oman and Saudi Arabia but an insignificant negative effect in Bahrain. The error correction model for the short run of the ARDL slowdown model showed that international paid remittances had a significant positive effect on financial development in Oman, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia.

Few studies have examined remittance outflows from GCC countries, which are enriched by oil wealth and located in one of the most stable geographical areas in the world. The findings from this study can help policymakers understand how to enable remittances and investments in order to establish regulations that will preserve remittance inflows and meet target services.

This study aims to investigate how abusive supervisor affects knowledge hiding (KH). Specifically, this study investigates employee silence as a mediating mechanism between abusive supervision and employees’ KH. Further, psychological ownership is examined as a buffer between abusive supervision and employee silence.

KH has become a major issue for both manufacturing and service sectors. Therefore, this study collected data from 322 employees working in manufacturing and service sectors through “Google Forms” during COVID-19. The respondents were contacted through LinkedIn platform between January and July 2021.

This study noted that when employees working in high-power distance cultures perceive their leaders/supervisors as abusive, they avoid confrontation and engage in silent behavior, which positively affects their KH behavior. However, employees with a high level of psychological ownership are less likely to respond to their abusive supervisors through silence because such employees feel a greater sense of belongingness and prefer to benefit their organization.

This study used a cross-sectional design that restricts causality. However, the findings of this study suggest management to focus on leadership style to minimize KH at the workplace.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to explore the underlying mechanism (employee silence) and boundary condition (psychological ownership) to explain the association between abusive supervision and KH.

Organizations have increasingly been compelled to engage in ecological businesses in recent decades, necessitating identifying environmental practices contributing to enhanced sustainability. One of the main reasons for doing this research is to see how far down the path to green transformational leadership (GTFL) in Green Human Resource Management (GHRM) practices in the healthcare industry in Pakistan. Additionally, this research aims to analyze how this change affects the long-term success of businesses in sustainable performance (SP).

To identify factors related to the study variables, the research utilized master journals, as well as the Web of Science and Scopus databases. The ISM-DEMATEL (Interpretive Structural Modeling - Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) technique was employed to establish a hierarchical model. This model facilitated the identification of cause-and-effect relationships among factors, which were further elucidated using the DEMATEL interrelationship diagram.

The analysis of the results indicates that Green Training (F4), Green Job Analysis (F1), Intellectual Stimulation (F10), and Green Product Innovation (F9) are the primary factors that have a significant impact on achieving Environmental Policies and Regulations (F13), and Subjective Environment Norms (F14) of SP factors.

The study is implemented in the healthcare industry of Pakistan, with a focus on practical and managerial aspects. It encourages managers to develop and adapt their human resources policies and environmental strategies. Implementing safety health standards is crucial to mitigate the detrimental effects on the environment. The research was carried out during the period of the pandemic. The scope of this study was restricted to the healthcare industry in Pakistan.

In order to improve SP, this study presents a unique strategy combining sustainability into decision-making procedures with the function of GTFL in GHRM. Implementing safety health standards is crucial to mitigate the detrimental effects on the environment.

This study examines the osteoconductive and healing capabilities of locally implanted synthetic hydroxyapatite (sHAp) derived from eggshells in the central incisor sockets of rats.

Toxicity experiments were conducted in vitro and in vivo, to testify the safety dosage of sHAp. Around 24 mature male Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats had their upper central incisors extracted. The rats were placed into three groups of eight rats each: Group 1: the sockets of extracted central incisors were left unfilled (control), Group 2: filled up with commercially available hydroxyapatite (HAp) and Group 3: implanted with sHAp locally retrieved from eggshells. After extraction, four rats from each group were sacrificed at 2nd and 4th weeks. Maxillary tissue sections were obtained and stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and Masson’s trichome (MT) staining. Anti-osteocalcin (OCN) and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) were used primary antibodies for immunohistochemistry (IHC) special labeling.

The results showed that the locally implanted sHAp was non-toxic and safe in cell lines (human osteoblast and fibroblast) and animals. Histological analysis of H&E, MT and IHC showed that the sockets treated with locally implanted sHAp from eggshells were filled with new bone tissue of comparable thickness to other groups.

This unique technique uses locally implanted eggshell-derived sHAp with osteoconductive characteristics. In an in vivo model, sHAps increased OCN and PCNA expression to improve bone repair.

This study aims to show the relationship between competition, financial stability and ownership structure of banks in the Middle East and North African (MENA) countries.

This study uses the generalized method of moments (GMM) estimators to generate research results. This study uses an unbalanced panel dynamic data set. It covers the period 2011 to 2017 in MENA banks.

This study implies that there is a significant and positive relationship between market power and the financial stability of banks in MENA countries. It explains a competitive market focus on credit risk, which turns them risky. From the bank’s ownership view, Islamic banks are in a less risky position which means Islamic banks are more stable than other ownership structures. On the other hand, government specialized institute displays their poor financial stability and risky from other ownership structures. Unfortunately, there is no significant impact of ownership structure on competition unless Islamic banks prove that they (Islamic banks) perform better in market power.

The empirical findings of this study suggest that MENA banks should improve the process of managing and monitoring the non-performing loan (loan segment business). It reduces the level of credit risk, which leads to achieving more profit. It also recommends that loan quality should improve immediately in this region for declining financial disruption. Based on the ownership structure, policymakers and stakeholders should adjust their risk and financial stability. Notably, the stakeholders can focus on Islamic banks in this region as this type of ownership structure showing superiority over other ownership structures.

This study is based on the latest data set and produced outcomes by using a GMM estimator. It also uses multiple measures of competition and risk variables to get robust results. Moreover, to the best of the knowledge, this study is the pioneer to examine the competition, risk (financial stability) and ownership structure of banks in the MENA countries.