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The fine art of budget presentation is based on a two‐step process: the request for funds and the defense of that request. Although both steps use statistics, it is the budget defense that demands the creative use of statistics.

This study aims to explore the impact of experiencing virtual reality (VR) and three-dimensional (3D) printing during the design process on the creativity of interior design students in a luminaire design project.

This study used the case-study approach within the context of a nine-week luminaire design project. Collected data included self-reported interest and engagement of students from a Qualtrics questionnaire and the ratings of their creativity via the Creative Product Semantic Scale (CPSS) with two judges.

Descriptive statistics from the Qualtrics questionnaire indicated an overall high level of student interest and engagement with the VR and 3D printing learning experience. Paired t-tests from CPSS ratings of the two judges showed a moderate increase in novelty and a significant increase in style with the introduction of VR and 3D printing technologies, respectively.

Spearman’s correlations (rho) showed no statistical evidence for the relationships between CPSS ratings for creativity and students’ self-reported interest and engagement in VR and 3D printing learning experience.

Ample access time to VR technology and sufficient control over the 3D printing process are important for effective applications of Industry 4.0 technologies in organizations.

This study dissected the confounding variables in its results as practical considerations for intergrading VR and 3D printing technologies for organizations in Industry 4.0.

This study acknowledged VR and 3D printing technologies as simulants for interest and engagement, which benefit creativity.

This research aims to examine hedge funds’ performance, risk and flow before and after the implementation of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act.

This paper includes the use of different factor models to highlight the performance and risk of hedge funds before and after the implementation of the STOCK Act. Hedge fund holdings are retrieved from Thomson Reuters Lipper Hedge Fund Database (TASS).

This study finds significant differences before and after the implementation of the STOCK Act. The results for the entire sample period indicate that hedge funds suffered lower-alpha, standard deviation and idiosyncratic risk after the implementation of the STOCK Act.

The paper’s originality and value lie in addressing the relationship gap between the STOCK Act and hedge fund performance.

The paper explores strategies of adaptation to the environment as employed by multinational corporations in Central and Eastern Europe. Organizations are treated as adaptive systems that have to match the complexity of their environments. The justification of the research lies in the complex nature of the market institutions emerging from transition that emphasizes the need for new managerial frameworks. Adaptive approaches such as vertical integration and/or value-chain development, leveraging autonomy and integration, local knowledge acquisition, and embedding in the social and political environment are explored in their relationship to success in the region.

This study aims to test mutual fund superiority, comparing the performance of 646 Islamic mutual funds with 475 ethical funds and conventional proxies.

This study uses statistical methods including paired t-statistics of independent samples, one-way Bonferroni test–analysis of variance–F-statistic for testing means equality, the chi-squared test for median equality and regression models corrected for heteroscedasticity. These methods are used to identify superiority of mutual funds and to validate the significance of the results.

The findings confirm the superiority of conventional funds over ethical funds and ethical funds over Islamic funds. Both ethical and Islamic funds, however, outperform conventional proxies during some recessionary periods. Moreover, stronger performance is recorded for Islamic funds in Europe and North America regions and across age and asset allocation categories, but limited support for reversal fund size, composition focus and reversed price effect.

These findings should assist investors when deciding to invest and motivate Islamic and ethical funds to improve their portfolio formation and asset allocation strategies set by their professional managers.

The originality of this study is in its comprehensive approach in that it compares the performance of funds after accounting for such characteristics as fund objectives, size, age, asset allocation, geographical investment focus, fund composition focus, share price levels and the effect of global crises. This study approach is not only original and productive in documenting Islamic funds’ performance for the past three decades (1990–2022) but can also update the literature on these characteristics collectively and individually.

Oil market VAR models have become the standard tool for understanding the evolution of the real price of oil and its impact on the macro economy. As this literature has expanded at a rapid pace, it has become increasingly difficult for mainstream economists to understand the differences between alternative oil market models, let alone the basis for the sometimes divergent conclusions reached in the literature. The purpose of this survey is to provide a guide to this literature. Our focus is on the econometric foundations of the analysis of oil market models with special attention to the identifying assumptions and methods of inference.

This paper details advances in biocybernetics and gives reports and surveys of selected research and development in systems and cybernetics. They include supercomputers, biometric technology, formal methods, applications of nanotechnology, innovations, and cybercriminals.

This article describes a study of the risks, returns and correlations among international stock market averages, from the point of view of both the US and UK investor during the period 1970 to 1977. The data have been analysed in two ways. First they are treated as observations from a stochastic process, and discussed from a statistical viewpoint; then they are treated as deterministic measures of the market and are used to find optimum portfolios using a Markowitz model. The study leads to the conclusion that although it is impossible to predict which portfolio will be best in the future, an international diversification policy can reduce risk by about a half.

The purpose of this paper is to critically analyse the impact of recent case law on the various evidential requirements in the area of indirect sex and indirect race discrimination in employment. It is intended to distil from the case law a comprehensive summary of the evidential requirements which an applicant in such a case must meet in order to succeed.

The evidential issues and the requirements to be fulfilled by an applicant in such cases will be identified and analysed by means of a review of the case law in this area.

Despite attempts of the courts to clarify the evidential requirements in this type of case, the law in this area remains complicated and confusing. Close analysis of the case law results in the identification and clarification of particular evidential “hurdles” which an applicant must clear in order to succeed.

The effect of these requirements results in a burden on an applicant in a case of indirect discrimination which is difficult to meet and the identification and clarification of the main issues will allow an applicant to focus on these requirements and increase the chances of a successful outcome. In this way the protection afforded by the law on indirect discrimination will become more effective. The findings are also useful in explaining to managers the nature and impact of the case law in this area.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the potential of textual haptic information to minimize the effects of need for touch (NFT) in global online environments by testing the effect of hands on description on consumer perception and intention to purchase.

The study was developed in three stages. A total of 140 valid responses were obtained in stage three. Multiple linear regression models and paired-samples t-test were applied to test the hypotheses.

The results show that textual haptic information has a positive impact on consumers’ perception and on the intention to purchasing.

To improve online sales firms should minimize the drawback of the inability of touching the product by providing textual haptic information.

The findings are especially valuable since the number of studies assessing NFT in online apparel commerce is currently very limited. Thus, this study adds new empirical evidences to existent body of knowledge and could assist the development of global marketing strategies for increasing online fashion sales.