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What follows is a small sampling of activities that are underway. All of them are working toward contributing to the understanding of the Earth system.

This study aims to present the push-pull motives of Islamic tourism and how these provide the basis for promoting and developing Islamic tourism practices in Ghana’s tourism industry. As Islamic tourism is considered as a niche market with new needs and wants globally, this study makes the effort to identify the prospects of this form of tourism in a non-Islamic developing nation.

The study has used a convenience sampling approach in gathering data from 337 Muslim tourists, adopting existing scale instruments of push-pull motives, satisfaction, word-of-mouth of tourists and Islamic practices. The structural equation modelling was used to establish relationships and effects of the studied variables.

The results revealed the significant effects of push-pull motives of Ghanaian Muslim tourists on satisfaction as well as the significant influence of tourist satisfaction on word-of-mouth. In addition, the significant moderating effects of Islamic practices on the relationships between push-pull motives and tourist satisfaction were established.

The conclusion and recommendations of this study might not be consistent with factors that motivate Muslims tourists in other countries.

The results of the study validate the viability of Islamic tourism practices and possible spread of positive word-of-mouth among potential Muslim tourists for future Islamic tourism market in Ghana.

This paper provides the first insight into push-pull motives of Muslim tourists’ choice of Islamic destination in non-Islamic developing country context. The insight will be valuable to tourism authorities, industry, academics, businesses, managers and practitioners, as the results will enhance product and service delivery to Muslim tourists when they are on vacation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether capital structure matters for earnings management of microfinance institutions.

The empirical study is conducted using a sample of 575 MFIs over 2007 to 2015, we determined in the first step the discretionary part of provision for loan impairment. In the second step, we examine the effect of debt and donated equity on discretionary provision for loan impairment.

We found robust evidence that MFIs manage their earnings for external finance purposes. Debt exhibits a negative effect on earnings management for both profit and nonprofit MFIs. However, donated equity incites managers of MFIs to engage this practice in nonprofit MFIs.

Findings could be valuable to fund providers and investors who should consider accounting information quality in order to reach a better investment decision.

This paper is among the few to explore earnings management motivation of MFIs and to determine the role of external financing on earnings management practice.

To develop a performance measurement system (PMS) in the application of supplier relationship management operated under a supply chain benchmarking framework. Acting as a monitoring tool for evaluating the performance of maintenance logistics providers against the defined performance levels stated in the contract, and facilitating the application of benchmarking approach in maintenance logistics activities.

A six tiers collaborative management model is designed in building the PMS, by which information sharing of performance history of suppliers is made possible. By following the work flow of the PMS, performance of suppliers is benchmarked with the best‐in‐class supplier, resulting in the identification of the most appropriate supplier for the particular requirement.

PMS helps a company and its suppliers to understand the performance gap between its service levels with the best‐in‐class practice. The resulting performance gap provides valuable information in the formulating of a new supply chain and strategic plan in solving problems and challenges in aviation industry. By means of PMS, a company can make decisions with the basis of a good relationship with its business partners, especially in the maintenance logistics area.

The design of PMS must take into consideration of the data sources, the duration of taking the required data, and the focal point on collecting information. Moreover, findings from the study have to be revised every two years.

By applying PMS in one of the leading airlines in Hong Kong, suppliers' deficiencies in the logistics performance are identified easily. Moreover, current operational service level is effectively enhanced and the combination of the best‐in‐class supplier service package is accurately selected.

The current research presents a case study on how COVID-19 has influenced event attendees' attitudes toward safety procedures, venue capacity, purchasing tickets in advance, type of events (e.g. theatre, music and art) and the mode of the event (i.e. live vs online).

In two timeframes (i.e. during and after COVID-19 lockdowns), data were collected via a self-completed online survey from a regional Western Australia (WA) town, Geraldton. In total, 94 event attendees were recruited in Wave 1 (during lockdowns), and 126 respondents were recruited in Wave 2 (after lockdowns). The naturalistic data collection examines how COVID-19 has influenced attendees' attitudes.

The findings suggest that attendees have adapted to the new normal of COVID-19. If safety procedures are followed, most respondents are comfortable attending an entertainment event during and after the lockdown (Wave 1 and Wave 2). Furthermore, respondents exhibited comfort following COVID-19 safety precautions at events even after COVID-19 lockdowns, except for mandatory mask-wearing. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted event attendees to prefer lower seating capacity at events, while the gradual easing of restrictions reduces their discomfort toward higher seat capacity.

Although some research has examined the financial and economic impact of COVID-19 on the event industry, there is limited research on consumers' or attendees' perceptions and attitudes toward events, particularly entertainment events and festivals, as the world emerges from the pandemic. Thus, the current case study is the first to examine event attendees' attitudes toward entertainment event management and operation during and after COVID-19 lockdowns. The finding provides significant theoretical and managerial implications surrounding the reaction of event attendees toward entertainment events (i.e. festivals) during health crises such as COVID-19.

Against the backdrop of European eGovernment (eGov) and new public management strategies, public sector mergers are the ultimate transformation after collaboration and integration. The land administration domain is useful to evaluate how and why mergers occur or not. The domain usually comprises two types of organizations, cadastres and land registries. There are both national and international calls to merge these two types, yet some countries have opted to merge these, while others persist in maintaining two separate ones. How and why this occurs is the key question.

This study applies a mixed-methods approach of data collection and a co-evolutionary perspective on organizational changes. Agencies change alongside perceptions of staff members and external stimuli of policies. These are exposed through narrated personal vignettes and international benchmarking surveys of land agencies.

Decisions on mergers are primarily embedded in local organizational cultures, and follow non-linear paths and are historically path-dependent. Internal staff members tend to disfavour mergers. Contrastingly, external stimuli such as the benchmark surveys act as national and international stimuli which favour mergers. The common narrative of both perspectives is an increased relevance of “simplicity”, which does not however have an effect on merger decisions.

The land administration domain is perhaps idiosyncratic. It has a long history with discussions on merging collaborating organizations. Still, other domains affected by eGov strategies have so far only focused on operational interoperability and database integration, and less on the potential for institutional or organizational mergers. Therefore, experiences from land administration will be useful in the future.

During the formulation of new eGov projects which foster further collaboration and integration in the public sector, it is necessary to take the merger experiences of land agencies into account. It is especially necessary to be aware of implicit norms which are fostered by positive feedback loops of social networks during mergers, which may influence discretionary decisions. In addition, international benchmarks and ranking need to reconsider their benchmarking criteria which currently only focus on efficiency measures.

Mergers may not be a next logical step when collaborating and integrating. Instead, mergers need to be rooted in personal long-standing collaboration practices. Furthermore, individual staff members may only be willing to engage in the operational aspects of mergers if it significantly makes their own tasks simpler and the quality of their work better appreciated by external customers.

The purpose of this paper is to review the insights provided by behavioral finance studies conducted in the last decade (2006-2015) examining behavioral variables in financial decision making.

The literature review assesses 623 qualitative and quantitative studies published in various international refereed journals and identifies possible scope of future work.

The paper identifies stock market anomalies which contradict rational agents of modern portfolio theory at an aggregate level and behavioral mediators, influencing the financial decision making at an investor level. The paper also attempts to classify different dimensions of risk as professed by the investor.

The authors synthesize the contribution made by behavioral finance studies in extending the knowledge of financial market and investor behavior.

The purpose of this article is to draw the reader’s attention to service productivity and its connection to service quality and eventually to profits. In service operations the customer plays an active role in influencing productivity and quality. Furthermore, contemporary companies are networks, not delimited hierarchies, and the productivity and quality issues affect all members of a network, not just the provider and the customer. This is clear from the new developments in relationship marketing and imaginary (virtual) organizations. In order to assess the financial outcome, the concept of return on relationships is introduced based on the notions of intellectual capital and the balanced scorecard. The article ends with challenging questions as well as recommendations for practising managers.

Academic libraries have endured rapid change in the past two decades that has had repercussions on how they manage their organization and deliver library services. Skyrocketing costs, especially for journals, explosive growth in new technologies, fiscal exigencies caused by a tightening of public financing of most academic institutions, demands for greater accountability, and the onslaught of electronic delivery of networked information, are just some of the major obstacles libraries are encountering (Lubans, 1996; Riggs, 1993; Shaughnessy, 1987). Customers of academic libraries are increasingly less satisfied because of limited resources and the difficulties they encounter in accessing printed material in a traditional library facility (Doughtery, 1992). The emergence of textual materials in electronic form has added a new dimension to this discontent. While such resources have the potential for meeting the information needs more dynamically, the costs for information have been exorbitant, particularly since full electronic texts have not been sufficient in coverage to supplant printed resources (Tenopir, 1993). These phenomena require academic libraries to use a more integrated and flexible approach to problem solving (Gapen, Hampton & Schmitt, 1993).

Sir Raymond Streat, C.B.E., Director of The Cotton Board, Manchester, accompanied by Lady Streat. A Vice‐President: F. C. Francis, M.A., F.S.A., Keeper of the Department of Printed Books, British Museum. Honorary Treasurer: J. E. Wright, Institution of Electrical Engineers. Honorary Secretary: Mrs. J. Lancaster‐Jones, B.Sc., Science Librarian, British Council. Chairman of Council: Miss Barbara Kyle, Research Worker, Social Sciences Documentation. Director: Leslie Wilson, M.A.