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This study aims to evaluate the presence of abnormal returns due to stock splits or reverse stock splits in the Brazilian capital market context.

The event study technique was used on data from 518 events that occurred in a 30-year period (1987–2016), comprising 167 stock splits and 351 reverse stock splits.

The results revealed the occurrence of abnormal returns around the time the shares began trading stock splits or reverse stock splits at a statistical significance level of 5%. The main conclusion is that stock split and reverse stock split operations represent opportunities for extraordinary gains and may serve as a reference for investment strategies in the Brazilian stock market.

This study innovates by including reverse stock splits, as the existing literature focuses on stock splits, and by testing two distinct “zero” dates that of the ordinary general meeting that approved the share alteration and the “ex” date of the alteration, when the shares were effectively traded, reverse split or split.

We explore the impact of equity liquidity on a firm’s dynamic leverage adjustments and the moderating impacts of leverage deviation and target instability on the link between equity liquidity and dynamic leverage in the UK market.

In applying the two-step system GMM, we estimate our model by exploring suitable instruments for the dynamic variable(s), i.e. lagged values of the dynamic term(s).

Our analyses document that a firm’s equity liquidity has a positive impact on the speed of adjustment (SOA) of its leverage ratio back to the target ratio in the UK market. We also demonstrate that the positive relationship between liquidity and SOA is more pronounced for firms whose current position is relatively close to their target leverage ratio and whose target ratio is relatively stable.

This study provides important implications for both firms’ managers and investors. Particularly, firms’ managers who wish to increase the leverage SOA to enhance firms’ value need to give great attention to their equity liquidity. Investors who want to evaluate firms’ performance could also consider their equity liquidity and leverage SOA.

We are the first to enrich the literature on leverage adjustments by identifying equity liquidity as a new determinant of SOA in a single developed country with many differences in the structure and development of capital markets, ownership concentration and institutional characteristics. We also provide new empirical evidence of the joint effect of equity liquidity, leverage deviation and target instability on leverage SOA.

In 2014, the Health Service Executive (HSE) in Ireland published its Safeguarding National Policy and Procedures (HSE, 2014). Under this policy, all agencies providing services through the social care directorate must ensure a robust culture of safeguarding is in place. Concurrent to this has been a move in social policy, practice and research to include the voice of the service user, both in terms of planning and reviewing services. (e.g. HIQA, 2012; Flanagan, 2020) This article examines whether service users with intellectual disabilities want to be involved in safeguarding plans and, if so, how that can be supported. Using focus groups service users demonstrated their knowledge of safeguarding as a concept, how they felt about the issues raised, and, crucially what they felt they would like to see happen next in addressing a safeguarding incident or concern. The focus groups took place in a large organisation providing residential services, day services, independent living supports and clinical supports. Engaging service users in planning and responding to safeguarding concerns is a fundamental principle of human rights legislation, both nationally and internationally. This study aims to highlight that it is both possible and desirable to engage fully with service users using a range of simple communication tools. For this to be implemented as routine practice in services providing support for people with intellectual disabilities, authentic leadership is required. Services will need to devote time, human resources and will need champions to get on board with the necessary culture shift.

Qualitative research examined peoples’ “lived experiences” and knowledge of safeguarding. Focus groups were used with thematic analysis highlighting common themes throughout, as guided by Braun and Clarke (2006). There were two objectives: Objective 1: measuring participant’s understanding of the safeguarding process. Objective 2: compare the potential differences between safeguarding plans devised by the participants in the focus groups, versus plans devised by trained designated officers responsible for safeguarding within the service.

Four principal themes emerged – 1. participants understanding of safeguarding; 2. restorative justice; 3. consent; and 4. high levels of emotional intelligence and compassion. Participants demonstrated that they could and did want to be involved in safeguarding planning and showed little variation in the plans compared to those completed by trained staff.

The study was completed with a small sample size in a single service in one area. It may not represent the lived experiences and knowledge of safeguarding in other services and indeed other countries. The video may have led to some priming; for instance, the Gardai in the footage being called may have resulted in the participants stating that contacting Gardai should be part of the plan. After the video was shown, there was a heightened awareness of safeguarding. This may indicate that participants are aware of safeguarding but unsure of the terminology or how to discuss it out of context.

For this to be implemented as routine practice in services providing support for people with intellectual disabilities, authentic leadership is required. Services will need to devote time and human resources and will need champions in the safeguarding arena to get on board with the shift in culture required.

While there did not appear to be many barriers to listening to participants, to progress this as a standard practice a very real shift in culture will be needed. It is important for practitioners to ask: Is the vulnerable person aware that this concern has been raised? What is known of the vulnerable person’s wishes in relation to the concern? To truly engage with service users in safeguarding plans these questions need to be more than a “tick box” exercise. This process needs to be fully embedded into a culture that promotes a person-centred, rights-based, inclusive approach as a standard rather than a one-off project. Some structural changes will be needed regarding the time given to designated officers, and what resources they can access (such as speech and language therapy). However, the real difference will be made by services operating authentic leadership that champions engagement on this scale, to fully answer the question posed by the researchers at the beginning of this report, “Whose safeguarding is it anyway?”

There appears to be little evidence of service user engagement in terms of planning and processing safeguarding responses, either in research or anecdotally.

The person who works in an office starts his or her day with a choice of attire. The way they look in the office depends on the decisions they make on their clothes. This study aims to identify the challenges faced by employees in the management positions in the Sri Lankan apparel industry who regularly come into contact with customers when they have to decide upon the most appropriate work attire for the position they are occupying in their organization.

Collection of data was primarily achieved through a well-structured questionnaire containing a mixture of open- and closed-ended questions. Targeted employees were managers, designers and merchandisers belonging to Generation Y whose total number was sufficient to obtain 50 feedbacks. Six more interviews were conducted with the intention of finding out more about this matter.

The majority of employees in the management positions in the Sri Lankan apparel industry who have regular contact with customers prefer to dress in “smart casual attire”, which means semi-formal clothes. Lack of availability of certain varieties of business attire in Sri Lanka proved to be a major challenge for some employees. Overpriced clothing, less comfortable clothing and lack of the right fabrics and designs were also challenges. These findings highlight the importance of manufacturing a wider variety of business attire using moderately priced but comfortable fabrics to make affordable and good quality products. There is a need to have a persuasive merchandising method to achieve good sales and provide a pleasant shopping experience to the customers.

Sri Lankan workwear retailers as well as apparel designers can benefit from the findings of this research as there is no evidence of any other studies on this subject. Therefore, this will help them to fill the market gap for business attire by addressing these challenges.

The number of young people using e-cigarettes (commonly referred to as vaping) has grown at an alarming rate, creating the need for urgent action. This paper demonstrates rapid step-by-step iterative application of the Co-create, Build and Engage (CBE) framework to showcase how marketing was applied in response to emerging trends that have negative health and environmental consequences. This paper aims to demonstrate how CBE is applied iteratively, ensuring student feedback leads module development.

In Study 1, a pure seven-step co-design implementation, 19 high school students were invited to co-design a vaping prevention approach that would work for them and other people like them. During the sensitisation phase of co-design, students completed one Blurred Minds Vaping module. Feedback grids were provided, with students identifying likes, dislikes and ideas. This likeability data was used, together with input from technical experts and pedagogical best practice, in a 12-week research and development project that aimed to develop a new online learning module focused on vaping and their environmental impacts for the Blurred Minds Academy. The new module was tested with 20 high school students. Feedback grids were provided once again, allowing a comparison of results.

Examination of feedback grid data demonstrates that the newly developed Vaping and the Environment module was improved. Considerations taken on board in the new module design (e.g. increased variability within the module) overcame criticisms expressed previously (e.g. it was boring and too long). Other criticisms remained evident, albeit at a much lower proportion suggesting the new Vaping and the Environment module, and future Blurred Minds module development, would benefit from iterative CBE application.

Conduit et al. (2022) note that marketing academia has been criticised for having an increasingly less relevant managerial agenda. This paper outlines a rapid step-by-step application of marketing in response to one of society’s most pressing health challenges – vaping. The iterative application of CBE is outlined, demonstrating that the student experience can be enhanced when marketing’s continual improvement mindset is used. This is the first vaping prevention programme that has included substantive information around the negative impacts of vaping on the environment.

This study aims to investigate the extent to which audit committee (AC) members who are formally independent are truly independent in practice, and what challenges they face that undermine their independence.

The study utilizes semi-structured interviews with 18 members of the AC in Jordan.

The responses indicate that AC is mostly labelled as independent but fails to play an effective monitoring role due to different institutional factors. These factors include family ownership, government ownership, culture, compensation package and the lack of qualified directors.

This research addresses this gap by presenting qualitative evidence from a civil law jurisdiction, featured by a developing financial market, a prevalence of family businesses, limited investor protection and a low risk of litigation. Additionally, this study aims to rectify the current imbalance between qualitative and quantitative studies on AC and bridge the gap between research conducted in developed countries and their developing counterparts.

This study offers valuable insights for regulatory authorities to engage in a more profound contemplation of extant governance regulations. Also, this study offers useful feedback for nomination committees of public companies, and it also has an implication for shareholders as they rely on independent directors to protect their investment. Furthermore, implications of the findings derived from this research possess the potential for generalization to other developing nations characterized by akin institutional contexts, notably encompassing the countries situated in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

This research introduces novel qualitative empirical evidence from a distinctive jurisdiction governed by civil law, thereby enriching the existing scholarly discourse. It also contributes to the AC literature by suggesting that it is not only the existence of conventionally independent ACs that affect the integrity of financial statements, but also the absence of social ties and other contextual obstacles.

This study sought to understand which food allergen labeling systems (non-directive, semi-directive, and directive) were attended to and preferred by 34 participants with food hypersensitivity and their perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) and behavioral intention towards a restaurant that identifies food allergens on menus.

This study used an online survey with open-ended and ranking questions, combined with eye-tracking technology, to explore participants' visual attention and design preferences regarding four menus. This study utilized one-way repeated measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA) and heat maps to analyze participants' menu-reading behaviors. A content analysis of survey responses and a ranking analysis of menus were conducted to understand the reasons behind consumers' preferred menu designs.

The advisory statement was not much attended to. Participants identified food allergen information significantly quicker with the directive labeling system (icons) than the other two systems, implying they were eye-catching. Semi-directive labeling system (red text) has lower visit count and was more preferred than two other systems; each labeling system has its strengths and limitations. Participants viewed restaurants that disclosed food allergen information on menus as socially responsible, and they would revisit those restaurants in the future.

This study was one of the first to explore, through use of eye-tracking technology, which food allergen labeling systems were attended to by consumers with food hypersensitivity. The use of triangulation methods strengthened the credibility of the results. The study provided empirical data to restauranteurs in the US on the values of food allergen identification on restaurant menus, although it is voluntary.

The dissemination of misleading and false information through media can jeopardize a company’s reputation, thus posing a threat to its stock and performance. Institutional investors are known to influence capital markets. Therefore, this paper investigates whether institutional investors engage in shaping the media sentiment stock nexus, stabilize company stocks and enhance performance.

We first investigate the effect of media sentiment on market reactions by using panel regression models. To examine the role of institutional investors, we design a quasi-experiment by exploiting the Financial Crisis of 2008 and go further by examining the heterogeneity across levels of institutional ownership. Due to risk-averse, investors may respond asymmetrically to pessimistic and positive sentiment. Accordingly, we split the sample into two sub-types, good news and bad news, based on keywords representing positive or negative content.

We find supportive evidence that institutional investors have impacts on how the markets react to media news, and the impacts are heterogeneous in the face of bad and good news. We conjecture that institutional investors act as a stabilizer of stock prices through media sentiment management.

This paper confirms the distinctive effects of institutional investors on capital markets, and uncovers the behind-the-scenes intervention and possible causal link running from institutional investors to media sentiment management. It contributes to the broad field of institutional investors' behavior, media news involvement in capital markets and market efficiency.

The construction sector is recognized for subjecting its workers to various psychological pressures and mental stressors. As a result, it is crucial to explore and discover effective strategies to support these workers in managing and enduring these demanding circumstances. Mental toughness is a concept that has been advocated to aid individuals in coping and adapting to pressures and challenges. Therefore, it is imperative to explore strategies critical to developing mental toughness among construction professionals. Thus, the purpose of this study is to identify critical strategies for the development of mental toughness among construction professionals.

A comprehensive literature review was conducted using Google Scholar, Scopus, ScienceDirect and PubMed databases to identify the strategies for the development of mental toughness. These identified strategies were used to develop a structured closed-ended questionnaire to aid in data collection. Of the 317 questionnaires distributed, 207 were collected and used for data analysis. The data were analysed using mean score ranking and one sample t-test.

The study highlighted 12 critical strategies for the development of mental toughness among construction professionals. These include recognizing and rewarding achievements, taking time for self-care, organizing mental training programs, using positive self-talk, embracing a growth mindset, providing social support/developing a strong support network, creating a challenging training environment, engaging in regular physical exercise, fostering a mastery motivational climate, setting clear but challenging goals, practicing mental imagery and practicing reflection on setbacks and failures. The analysis results indicated that all of the strategies, except one (which involves practicing reflection on setbacks and failures), displayed significance. By incorporating these strategies, construction firms and the industry as a whole can empower their workforce to cope and/or overcome the various demands and stressors that work and life places on them.

The study highlights the significance of recognizing and rewarding achievements, fostering a growth mindset and implementing mental training programs to cultivate mental toughness among construction professionals. Moreover, promoting self-care practices and offering social support are essential strategies for enhancing mental resilience in the construction industry. By adopting these evidence-based approaches, construction organizations can create a mentally tough workforce capable of handling the challenges and demands of the industry effectively.

This study contributes significantly to the general body of knowledge in mental health management among employees in the construction industry. It does set the pace for the development of the general well-being of construction professionals in the achievement of mental toughness goals.