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The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between terrorist activities in Pakistan and the stock market development.

Using Terrorism Impact Factor (TIF), a unique score developed for this paper, an insight is provided into the causal relationship that exists between terrorism and Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) index. Quantitative significance of the impact of terrorist activities on stock index is also discussed in the paper.

Through the empirics of the study, it is analyzed that terrorism negatively impacts stock market returns in the long run; whereas no significant relationship between stock market returns and terrorism is estimated in the short run.

A potential limitation of the study was the constraint related to the available yearly economic growth and other economic variables' data. The TIF created for the study was based on the terrorist activities from 2001 to mid‐2011 on an incident‐to‐incident basis. A yearly measure would have provided 11 data points for the study, which are considered insufficient for econometric analysis.

It is recommended that governments pay particular attention to economic recovery in the aftermath of terrorist attacks. Policies aimed at combating terrorism must be the priority of the government, so that its harm can be reduced, if not exterminated.

Terrorism, with its all kinds of impacts, affects the society and its activities and therefore must be eliminated if an economy needs to prosper.

This study envisions the overall impact of terrorist activities, not just a single activity, on the health of the economy. For studying this impact, a Terrorism Impact Factor (TIF) scale has been developed for this study, based on the impact of each terrorist activity in the country.

Citizens are substantial stakeholders in every e-government system, thus their willingness to use and ability to access the system are critical. Unequal access and information and communication technology usage, which is known as digital divide, however has been identified as one of the major obstacles to the implementation of e-government system. As digital divide inhibits citizen’s acceptance to e-government, it should be overcome despite the lack of deep theoretical understanding on this issue. This research aimed to investigate the digital divide and its direct impact on e-government system success of local governments in Indonesia as well as indirect impact through the mediation role of trust. In order to get a comprehensive understanding of digital divide, this study introduced a new type of digital divide, the innovativeness divide.

The research problems were approached by applying two-stage sequential mixed method research approach comprising of both qualitative and quantitative studies. In the first phase, an initial research model was proposed based on a literature review. Semi-structured interview with 12 users of e-government systems was then conducted to explore and enhance this initial research model. Data collected in this phase were analyzed with a two-stage content analysis approach and the initial model was then amended based on the findings. As a result, a comprehensive research model with 16 hypotheses was proposed for examination in the second phase.

In the second phase, quantitative method was applied. A questionnaire was developed based on findings in the first phase. A pilot study was conducted to refine the questionnaire, which was then distributed in a national survey resulting in 237 useable responses. Data collected in this phase were analyzed using Partial Least Square based Structural Equation Modeling.

The results of quantitative analysis confirmed 13 hypotheses. All direct influences of the variables of digital divide on e-government system success were supported. The mediating effects of trust in e-government in the relationship between capability divide and e-government system success as well as in the relationship between innovativeness divide and e-government system success were supported, but was rejected in the relationship between access divide and e-government system success. Furthermore, the results supported the moderating effects of demographic variables of age, residential place, and education.

This research has both theoretical and practical contributions. The study contributes to the developments of literature on digital divide and e-government by providing a more comprehensive framework, and also to the implementation of e-government by local governments and the improvement of e-government Readiness Index of Indonesia.

The purpose of this paper is to explore female teachers and vice principal’s leadership on girls attendance and learning, safety and security issues in rural girls’ schools experiencing Boko Haram insurgencies. The secondary purpose is to recommend innovative educational policy initiatives at the school, community and state levels, so as to ameliorate girls and teachers’ challenges, and to sustain girls in schools.

Qualitative educational research orientation and an ethnographic-narrative research design were used for the study. Purposeful sampling procedure was adopted through the selection of female teachers and a vice principal. Soft qualitative oral data (SQOD) were collected from structured interviews and focus groups and participant observation data. Data analysis engaged hand data analysis (HAD) for transcription, while the coding and theming process involved qualitative computer software data analysis (CSDA) of NVivo 8.0. The measures of validity involved the qualitative process of member checking, while ethical issues of anonymity with participants were addressed in the process of data collection, and reporting.

Major findings revealed a symbiotic relationship between female teacher’s moral leadership and the application of law of tort in the girls’ school; teachers’ adopted spiritual leadership and moral decision making process on girls’ safety, and learning motivation; and improved school community collaboration for security and safety of the girls and effective communication.

Educational policy options are prescribed. They include the training of teachers and girls on fire safety and conflict crisis; recruitment of female school counsellors; housing incentives for female teachers; support grassroot initiatives on school security; and sustaining school-community/parents involvement.

Boko Haram’s impact on teacher and school leadership in girls’ school(s) has not been studied so far. The paper is the first, thereby filling the gap of the literature on girls’ rural education and terrorism.

This literature scoping review aims to investigate if, how and why eating behaviours change after a crisis event such as a natural disaster, financial crisis or pandemic in high-income countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting “lockdowns” and social distancing measures have changed access to food, the types of food consumed and usual eating behaviours. Early research on the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic is compared with existing literature on other high-impact crises in high-income countries around the world, such as Hurricane Katrina and the Global Financial Crisis. A search of four electronic databases in August 2020 of literature from 2000 to 2020 yielded 50 relevant publications that were included in the qualitative thematic analysis.

The analysis found that crisis events made accessing food more difficult and led to increased food insecurity. Home cooking, sharing food and eating together (within households during the pandemic) all increased during and after a crisis. Resources often reduced and needed to be pooled. Crises had a multi-directional impact on dietary patterns, and the motivators for dietary pattern change differ between populations and crises.

In conclusion, eating behaviours impacted by crises because of the disruption of food systems, increased food insecurity and changes in daily routines. Community networks were a strong protective factor against adverse outcomes from food insecurity.

To clarify our analysis, we start with a conceptual explanation of synarchy and the key terms that we need to use in this chapter. Synarchy is a neologism that combines synthesis with anarchy. We will first look at how these two contrasting ideas are linked. In juxtaposition, they provide a basis for understanding contemporary public administration in a global and comparative context.

Advanced analytics‐driven data analyses allow enterprises to have a complete or “360 degrees” view of their operations and customers. The insight that they gain from such analyses is then used to direct, optimize, and automate their decision making to successfully achieve their organizational goals. Data, text, and web mining technologies are some of the key contributors to making advanced analytics possible. This paper aims to investigate these three mining technologies in terms of how they are used and the issues that are related to their effective implementation and management within the broader context of predictive or advanced analytics.

A range of recently published research literature on business intelligence (BI); predictive analytics; and data, text and web mining is reviewed to explore their current state, issues and challenges learned from their practice.

The findings are reported in two parts. The first part discusses a framework for BI using the data, text, and web mining technologies for advanced analytics; and the second part identifies and discusses the opportunities and challenges the business managers dealing with these technologies face for gaining competitive advantages for their businesses.

The study findings are intended to assist business managers to effectively understand the issues and emerging technologies behind advanced analytics implementation.

The purpose of this paper is to establish a baseline for the study of offshore outsourcing in Iceland. After an extensive search to identify any paper (English or Icelandic) that dealt with this topic turned up empty, it was decided that a comprehensive work was necessary to provide an opportunity for future comparative research.

Data were secured by interviewing the chief information officers (CIOs) or equivalent officers of the 11 largest corporations (by Icelandic standards). A checklist was used to focus the initial question session, and then the CIOs were permitted, and encouraged, to muse about their information technology (IT) operations. Insights were gathered on a set of problems, and some of those identified problems were quite unexpected.

Ten trends are identified consisting of aspects of: the difficulty of hiring qualified labor in‐country; establishment of strategy resides entirely within the IT management; security remains a serious concern; offshore subcontractors sometimes place their employees within Icelandic companies; mid‐ and upper‐level employees who can strategically develop networks and systems are in strong demand; use of information system (IS)/IT standards for information security is mostly voluntary; generally, the establishment of IS/IT strategy does not remain with board of directors; virtually all Icelandic corporations engage in, or have engaged in, outsourcing over the past five years (11 sub‐trends are identified); and the business school curricula is inadequate to the needs of Icelandic corporations with respect to IT demands.

Comparisons among Nordic and other small nations are not addressed. Virtually, every trend noted should be followed up with additional study. This paper is designed to establish baseline of current offspring activity in Iceland. It is by no means a definitive study.

Many research threads are identified and opened for future work. Academic programs can use this paper as motivation for modifications in existing programs and the creation of new one that better satisfies corporate needs.

Prior to this paper, there is no information available on the state of IT offshoring in the country of Iceland. A benchmark is now established against which future research can be measured.

In a globalised environment, market volatility makes risk management an essential component of the supply chain. Similar to conventional supply chains, a Halal supply chain (HSC) is also affected by several factors making it vulnerable to risks. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify and analyse the elements of Halal supply chain management (HSCM) and their significant risk dimensions.

In total, 72 risk elements of HSCM are identified through a review of contemporary scientific literature along with news items and official websites related to risk management of conventional supply chain management, HSC and sustainable supply chain. Further, 42 risk elements are finalised using fuzzy Delphi and then these risk elements are categorised into 7 dimensions. The interrelationships among the risk dimensions as well as risk elements are developed using fuzzy DEMATEL.

Results suggest that production, planning, logistic & outsourcing and information technology-related risk are prominent risk dimensions. The causal relationships among the significant risk dimensions and elements related to the HSCM may help managers and policy planners.

This study faces a challenge due to inadequate availability of the literature related to risk management in the area of HSCM. Further, this study has used inputs from experts, which can be biased.

To the best of the author's knowledge, it is the first comprehensive study towards investigating the interrelationships among the risks in the context of the HSCM.

This paper aims to examine the relevance of the theory of comparative advantage in the present realities of a world undergoing de-globalisation, that is, a retreat from closer integration.

This paper presents eight arguments that analyse the theory as posited by Adam Smith and David Ricardo and that theory remains the underpinnings for trade liberalisation as regulated by the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The arguments do not contend with the role and achievements of the WTO in the era of globalisation. Rather, these call for an acknowledgement of the changing realities of countries in the face of changes in the political, economic and legal landscapes, across the globe.

This is an original submission by the author.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential synergy between companies’ sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) activities and their supply chain resilience (SCRES). The authors propose hypotheses about the impact of buying companies SSCM activities on the inflicted damage by unexpected supply chain disruptions and the recovery time afterwards and test these empirically using data from companies during the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The authors investigate a sample of 231 of the largest publicly traded companies in the European Union with 4.158 firm-year observations. For the analysis, the authors generate variables capturing the companies’ intensity and years of experience of their SSCM activities targeted at the supply chain and run regression analyses on the inflicted damage due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the recovery time after the disruption.

Buying companies’ SSCM activities have a positive effect on their SCRES. The damage inflicted by unexpected supply chain disruptions is lower when companies have higher levels of SSCM and longer experience with it. The recovery time afterwards is significantly reduced by longer experience with SSCM efforts.

The authors suggest SCRES is reinforced by transparency, situational awareness, social capital and collaboration resulting from companies SSCM activities translate into increased SCRES.

The authors show that companies with superior SSCM are more resilient in a crisis and conclude that, therefore, companies should invest in SSCM to prevent future supply disruptions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study analyzing a data set of multi-industry companies, linking their SSCM activities to SCRES during the pandemic.