Search results

A stylized fact in finance literature is the belief in positive relationship between ex ante return and risk. Hence, a rational investor, by utility preference axiom can only consider committing fund in asset which promises commensurate higher return for higher risk. Questions have been asked as to whether this holds true across securities, sectors and markets. Empirical evidence appears less convincing, especially in developing markets. Accordingly, the author investigates the nature of reward for taking risk in the Nigerian Capital Market within the context of individual assets and markets.

The author employed ex post design to collect weekly stock prices of firms listed on the Premium Board of Nigerian Stock Exchange for period 2014–2022 to attempt to answer research questions. Data were analyzed using a unique M Vec TGarch-in-Mean model considered to be robust in handling many assets, and hence portfolio management.

The study found that idea of risk-expected return trade-off is perhaps more general than as depicted by traditional finance literature. The regression revealed that conditional variance and covariance risks reveal minimal or no differences in sign and sizes of coefficients. However, standard errors were also found to be large suggesting somewhat inconclusive evidence of existence of defined incentive structure for taking additional risk in the market.

In terms of choice of methodology and outcomes, this research adds substantial value to body of knowledge. The adapted multivariate model used in this paper is a rare approach especially for management of portfolios in developing markets. Remarkably, the research found empirical evidence that positive risk-expected return trade-off, as known in mainstream literature, is not supported especially using a typical developing country data.

While there is ample discussion in management studies and organizational behavior textbooks about the factors that impact organizational outcomes, such as employee retention, this research is focused on exploring the previously unexplored question of how procedural justice, job characteristics and meaningful work influence employees' intentions to leave their organizations. As such, this study aims to investigate the impact of procedural justice on employees' intentions to leave, both independently and in conjunction with job characteristics and meaningful work as mediators.

This study uses partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to develop the research model and for hypothesis testing. The path model is assessed using critical model fit indices and measures of goodness of fit.

The results reveal a negative relationship between procedural justice and employees’ intentions to leave. This negative relationship persists and is strengthened when both job characteristics and meaningful work act as mediators. Although job characteristics only exerted a significant effect through indirect effects, meaningful work demonstrated a significant negative impact on the intentions to leave through both direct and indirect effects.

This study presents a new perspective on employee retention by proposing an original mediation-based path model. Through the testing of eleven hypotheses, the study reveals the intricate relationships between the four constructs examined. The findings provide valuable insights that can serve as a basis for future research in management studies and organizational behavior.

This paper aims to introduce a new perspective on long-term stock return predictability by focusing on the relative (individual and hybrid) informative power of a wide range of accounting (firm-related), technical and macroeconomic factors while considering the past performance of the stocks using machine learning algorithms.

The sample includes a panel data set of 94 non-financial firms listed in Egyptian Exchange 100 index from 2014: Q1 to 2019: Q4. Relativity has been investigated by comparing relevant factors’ individual and combined informative power and differentiating between losers and winners based on historical stock returns. To predict the quarterly stock returns, Gaussian process regression (GPR) has been used. The robustness of the results is examined through the out-of-sample test. This study also uses linear regression (LR) as a benchmark model.

The past performance and the presence of other predictors influence the informative power of relevant factors and hence their predictive ability. The out-of-sample results show a trade-off between GPR and LR with proven superiority to GPR in limited experiments. The individual informative power outperforms the hybrid power, in which macroeconomic indicators outperform the remaining sets of indicators for losers, while winners show mixed results in terms of various performance evaluation metrics. Prediction accuracy is generally higher for losers than for winners.

This study provides interesting insight into the dynamic nature of the predictor variables in terms of stock return predictability. Hence, this study also deepens the understanding of asset pricing in a way that directly contributes to practitioners’ portfolio diversification strategies.

In concern of the chaos of factors in the literature and its accompanying misleading conclusions, this study takes another look at the approach that studies stock return predictability. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study in the Egyptian context that re-examines the predictive power of the previously discovered factors from a different perspective that highlights their relative nature.

Loneliness and social isolation are risk factors for morbidity and mortality and a growing health concern. Peer support is an intervention that has shown efficacy in the wider health-care arena. However, little is known about its effectiveness when working with adults and adolescents experiencing these issues. The purpose of this study is to conduct a scoping review on loneliness and social isolation in adult and youth populations.

A preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses extension for scoping reviews was conducted. Five databases, Web of Science, Academic Search Complete, Embase, PsycINFO and Scopus were searched for peer-reviewed literature published in English from inception to 2023.

The search yielded 2,402 articles of which (N = 12) met the inclusion criteria for this review. Peer support interventions for loneliness and social isolation are a relatively new topic of interest for academics. However, it is apparent that loneliness and social isolation cut across populations experiencing various health and social issues. More experiential research is needed to evidence the effectiveness of peer support in these areas with both adults and adolescents. Emerging areas of interest include the use of technology to deliver interventions and the use of technology to facilitate peer support implementation with populations difficult to reach.

Peer support may be a promising social intervention to help those experiencing loneliness and social isolation associated with a range of health conditions. However, further research needs to be undertaken in this emerging area of practice.

Loneliness and social isolation are of increasing concern. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first scoping review conducted in this area