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Climate change affects the natural resource base and poses enormous difficulty for the natural resource‐dependent indigenous population of the cold desert region in the high altitude Himalayas. The interplay of climatic and eco‐hydrological processes on these fragile ecosystem coupled with increasing anthropogenic pressure, are leading to increasing stress on indigenous agro‐pastoral communities and their livelihoods. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the outcomes of a study carried out in the Trans and Western Indian Himalayas to quantify the level of environmental threat and adaptive capacity.

Field studies were carried out across the cold desert belt in Indian Himalaya. A stratified, nested sampling across four Altitude Bands and three hydrological levels in two bio‐geographic regions. A participatory approach blended with scientific field observations and secondary data collection was adopted. Criterion variables were used to identify the “Vulnerability Hotspots” while component indices helped in depiction of key characteristic features of study units.

Data generated through participatory resource appraisal and scientific field observations were used to determine vulnerable “hotspot's”, identifying the driving factors (both anthropogenic and natural processes), and determining focus areas for interventions.

A pilot project on Water Access and Wasteland Development has been initiated in the Western Himalayas that integrates community based natural resource management with infusion of appropriate technology to address water stress and ecosystem vulnerability.

The research results identify target areas and methodologies for intervention, while the pilot initiative strives to ensure that disadvantaged cold desert mountain communities have access to resources and skills for effective management of these resources.

The purpose of this research is to compare the fatality rate of Black and White subjects shot by police. This comparison is meant to explore whether officer-involved shootings (OIS) are impacted more by perceived threat or by demographic characteristics. Beyond race, contextual and officer-level variables are examined for their influence on lethal vs non-lethal police shootings.

The study utilizes data from the Tampa Bay Times database on police shootings in Florida from 2009 through 2014. Our analysis focuses on the substantive importance of this issue, using the population of OIS in one specific state over a specified time period. The authors also including multinomial logistic regression models analyzing the impact of race, contextual and officer-level variables on the lethal outcome of OIS is clear that the police are shooting at two very different populations.

Although Black subjects are disproportionately represented as the subjects of OIS, there was no significant difference in the lethality of such incidents based simply on race. However, when we compare Black subjects to White subjects, it is clear that the police are shooting at two very different populations. Black subjects were younger, less likely to be armed, less likely to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and less likely to have suspected or known mental health considerations than their White counterparts.

Thus, it is possible that any racialized difference in the lethality of police shootings is being suppressed because we are comparing very different groups of subjects to one another.

This paper is the first to examine the racial threat that officers experience past the decision to engage in violence. The authors are looking at how they shoot at minorities vs the decision to shoot at minorities.

This paper aims to understand whether Portugal, being a relatively peripheral country – in political, economic and military terms – of Southwest Europe, was recently a target of hybrid threats. The prevalence of a specific type of threat was found. Thus, this paper analyses the non-kinetic hybrid threats in Portugal, in a temporary hiatus of two years (2017-2018).

This study has two parts: a conceptual analysis of hybrid threats created by us and, based on the typology previously presented, an analysis of the hybrid threats in Portugal between 2017 and 2018. The first part relied on source analysis, as the result of a desk review methodology, supported by monographs, declassified official documents and reports. The second part is also the result of source analysis, but more extensive. In addition to the desk review methodology, the study included semi-structured interviews with different stakeholders from the Portuguese security and armed forces, who asked not to be quoted. Media content analysis was also carried out – for trends and fact-check – mostly for the events related to the “narratives led operations” (for propaganda, misinformation, counter-information and strategic leaks).

To date, Portugal – compared with other European states – has not been a significant target for hybrid threats. It is diluted in the Portuguese geopolitical dimension. Nevertheless, not escaping what is happening in Europe, it has also been the target of non-kinetic hybrid threats, especially in cyberspace. In the field of so-called “narrative-driven operations”, there have been some occurrences – whether related to fake news, far-right movements or strategic leaks. In addition, cyberattacks from foreign groups for information and data gathering have increased in recent years, making governmental and private critical infrastructures more vulnerable.

One of the characteristics of hybrid threats is their difficult identification. Therefore, information is scarce, which has complicated the research, leading us to assume, in many cases, speculation about the threat. It should also be taken into account that, in the case of cyberspace, until 2018, 90% of the occurrences were not reported, and the study has dealt with only official numbers.

It is not a policy paper. Although it neither points out national vulnerabilities to this type of threat nor makes procedural recommendations or considerations, it is fundamental in identifying the peculiarity of hybrid threats in a democratic state.

To understand how to deal with high effect situations, like that associated with COVID-19, in the future, many economists, academics and business leaders are drawing parallels between the 2008 financial crisis and the current pandemic. This study aims to explore how crisis elements can be considered while strategizing for business research despite the minimal possibility of an emergency occurring. Also, research in crisis management is fragmented, resulting in isolated components guiding businesses through crises. This research emphasizes the relative scarcity of a comprehensive crisis management framework.

COVID-19 has been the biggest crisis the world has ever confronted, and businesses require an innovative strategy to address it. Towards keeping the data set involved in this study targeted and manageable, articles are selected from peer-reviewed journals based on a purposive sampling method. In addition, the research used reports from consulting firms and government and nongovernment organizations to understand current trends in business research.

The findings revealed that for a firm to survive a crisis, it must ensure its plans are aligned with the trends that would allow it to grow during the crisis. Rather than entirely changing the track, strategies should be guided by the company's existing resource availability and capabilities. The techniques used must ensure the company's profitability or limit losses, thus ensuring long-term viability. Real-life examples from the current pandemic have shown how firms who recognized crisis characteristics could survive the pandemic and profited multiple times.

It presents an integrated, sector-agnostic crisis management framework based on literature, business managers' insights and lessons from the current pandemic. Precrisis, crisis arrival, crisis management and crisis experience are the four phases of the framework. The study proposes future research directions to scholars in applying the framework and its enhancement concerning the upcoming crisis possibilities.

Grocery retailing markets are becoming more open and international. Finland is an example of a previously closed and restricted market which has recently opened its borders to foreign food products as well as food retailers. This paper describes the competitive dynamics and actions of the domestic retailers that took place when the first foreign grocery retailer entered the market. The paper concludes that the main competitive moves were related to the price of food products and to changes in product ranges. The domestic retailers imitated the concept of the entrant and added new low‐priced own brands into their product mixes. The roles of the market actors were reversed during the entry process: the domestic market leaders became followers and the small entrant played the role of the market leader.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to existing financial literature within a less researched area through a systematic, organized, and holistic approach. This study advances the notion of considering terrorist attacks as a heterogeneous group of events by employing a multidimensional approach. The event study methodology was used to investigate the impact of 46 terrorist attacks occurring on the soil of OECD countries since 1990 on stock markets in US, UK, Spain, and Denmark. Thereby, terrorist attacks are considered as events conveying information to financial markets, which is processed by investors and subsequently reflected in security prices. This chapter is the first contribution within financial literature to distinguish and categorize terrorist attacks through several dimensions and investigate the effect of various characteristics on stock markets. The multidimensional analytical approach consisted of six dimensions, which included an examination of the national stock markets, differences across industries, the underlying threat characteristics, the size of the attack, and the development over time and geospatial aspects. It is concluded that terrorist attacks exhibiting international threat characteristics result in significantly larger and boundary spanning negative abnormal returns, which impact stock markets beyond the country in which the attack occurred. Additionally, the size of the terrorist attack amplifies the negative impact on stock markets. However, while the impact on stock markets was found to be immediate indicating that stock markets are quick and efficient in absorbing new information, the negative impact is likely to evaporate within five trading days.

This article considers the literature on threats made by individuals, with particular reference to threats made by patients against health care workers. This is the second of two parts, and concerns the characteristics of those who threaten and the impact of the threats on the victims. It considers threats as predictors of, and part of, the escalating process which leads to further violence.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how subsidiary managers gain attention from top executives at headquarters for their desired issue in order to initiate a bottom-up change. Specifically, it focuses on relationships among a change issue’s characteristics, environmental threats and top executives’ attention.

An empirical test of hypotheses by a hierarchical regression approach has been applied to analyse the data collected through a survey of 81 headquarters-subsidiary dyads in China.

There are three main findings, including first, the headquarters’ attention is positively related to the organizational benefits of an issue; second, there exist inverted U-shaped curves between an issue’s legitimacy or novelty and the headquarters’ attention; and third, the headquarters’ attention to an issue is also moderated by environmental threats.

The present study has noted that the headquarters’ attention to the issue varies not only according to the issue’s distinctive characteristics but also to their perception of environmental threats. It contributes to the advancement of organizational change theory by focusing on the empirical examination of an issue-selling process which is a key component part in a bottom-up change.

This research investigates the issues of concern for American film and television (TV) unions, the features of issues, whether issues are threats, opportunities or mixed evaluations, and unions' distributive or integrative approaches to issues (Walton and McKersie, 1965).

The first author interviewed 25 union leaders and used thematic analysis to identify issue characteristics and evaluations of issues as threats, opportunities or mixed. Using language analysis, the authors then connected these evaluations to integrative or distributive approaches.

The findings revealed three larger issues of concern (positioning the union and jurisdiction, shifting patterns of risk and negotiating and enforcing contracts) and five characteristics (locus, boundary, manageability, predictability and scope). These characteristics then determined how interviewees viewed issues as threats, opportunities or mixed evaluations. Three characteristics grouped together to form threats: external locus, indistinct boundaries and low manageability. Indistinct boundaries contributed to assessments of issues as mixed. These issue types, characteristics and interpretations revealed a metaphorical above- and below-the-line differentiation among film and TV unions based on the members continued ownership of their work. With one exception – BTL unions on positioning union and jurisdiction – leaders' language reflected distributive approaches to issues.

This study delves deeper into Walton and McKersie's (1965) classical two-part classification of issues by adding a typology of characteristics and operational definitions to aid in identifying threats, opportunities and mixed evaluations through the novel use of issue analysis in industrial relations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of personality traits on the perception of key message characteristics in road safety advertising.

The advertisement uses visual imagery and imagery methods to examine key message characteristics. An online survey questionnaire was used to obtain responses of 947 driver perceptions with various personality traits; and the data are explored using multiple linear-regressions.

The findings of the research indicate the importance of using key message characteristics based upon established scientific theory to developing messages, more particularly in road safety and other social marketing campaigns. The role of personality traits and its relevance also appear to be of primary importance and can be used to segment the market; guide message designs and development, as different personality traits are found to be significant for different message characteristics.

This research varies from preceding efforts as it examines the influence of personality traits on drivers’ perceptions of messages using established scientific theory, and bridging the gap in the research between two main paths of research with reference to fear-based messages: the process that influences an individual response to key messages; and the influences of personality trait differences on message perceptions.

This study extends the knowledge in several essential areas and offers a set of recommendations to assist marketers in developing effective message strategies and segmentation based on personality traits. Besides advancing theory, this study enhances the understanding of how to develop more effective road safety messages that will save lives and prevent injuries.