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The study aims to assess the interplay between financial globalization, effective governance and economic growth in sub-Saharan African (SSA) economies.

This study uses the Generalized Method of Moment Estimation and the Panel Quantile Regression techniques to analyze how financial globalization and governance impact sub-Saharan African economies.

The results show that governance is vital to the region's economic development. In order to achieve significant growth, sub-Saharan African economies must prioritize actions that promote good governance.

The study is limited to sub-Saharan African economies.

It is crucial for the sub-Saharan Africa economies to concentrate on strengthening governance frameworks in order to realize its full economic potential because improvements in governance quality would have a favorable effect on economic growth.

The findings indicate that both capital inflows and governance dynamics are essential for fostering economic growth in SSA economies. Also, balancing globalization's benefits with effective governance is crucial for promoting sustainable growth in SSA.

This paper fills a gap in literature by using the KOF financial globalization index to assess the impact of financial globalization and governance on economic growth in sub-Saharan African economies.

This study aims to provide insights into US and Australian analysts' views regarding the relative importance of disclosing the direct method (DM) or indirect method (IM) statement of cash flows and forecasting firm performance.

Evidence is collected from responses to 104 surveys and 52 interviews completed by US and Australian analysts from 2017 to 2022. The survey and interview questions are developed with reference to the literature.

US and Australian analysts believe that the DM format provides incremental benefits compared to the IM for (1) confirming the reliability of earnings; (2) improving earnings confidence; (3) more accurate ex ante forecasts of operating cash flow and earnings; and (4) identifying opportunistic accruals manipulation. Analysts view that DM disclosure can lower firm-level cost of equity, although US interviewees more uniformly expect lower costs of equity under DM disclosure when firms yield low earnings quality. DM disclosure is also more important during unstable economic periods, as proxied by COVID-19.

Limited research currently exists regarding disclosure of the DM or IM and its impact on analysts' forecasting accuracy, earnings quality, economic uncertainty and cost of equity. Previous research has relied on archival research to examine differences between the DM and IM methods and are limited by data availability. Our findings are particularly relevant to the US market with few US firms reporting the DM format.

This paper examines the relationship between a prime contractor's financial health and its mergers and acquisitions (M&A) spending in the defense industry. It aims to provide models that give the United States Department of Defense (DoD) indications of future M&A activity, informing decision-makers and contributing to ensuring competitive markets that benefit the consumer.

The study uses panel data regression models on 40 companies between 1985 and 2021. The company's financial health is assessed using industry-standard financial ratios (i.e. measures of profitability, efficiency, solvency and liquidity) while controlling for economic factors such as national productivity, defense budgets and firm size.

The results show a significant relationship between efficiency and M&A spending, indicating that companies with lower efficiency tend to spend more on M&As. However, there was no significant relationship between M&A spending and a company's profitability or solvency. These results were consistent with previous research and the study's hypotheses for profitability and solvency. However, the effect of liquidity was the opposite of the expected result, possibly due to the defense industry's different view on liquidity compared to previous research.

The paper provides insights into the relationship between a prime contractor's financial health and its M&A spending, a topic with limited research. The findings can inform policymakers and regulators on the industrial base's future M&A activity, ensuring competitive markets that benefit the consumer.

In this article, the authors – a social studies methods professor and geography research associate – make the case for considering the integration of Holocaust geographies into the middle and secondary curriculum, potential challenges that teachers may have in teaching Holocaust geographies are addressed.

Using an experience in delivering professional development on Holocaust geographies to teachers to frame the discourse within the article, the authors contend that a study of Holocaust geographies tests geography as a discipline, addresses current problems and supports student inquiry. Therefore, the inclusion of the Holocaust in the geography curriculum is both needed and valuable.

Examining the Holocaust spatially using geographical skills moves students away from the potential limits of studying the Holocaust temporally using only historical skills. Thus, the distance between past and present, although not ignored, is narrowed through the inquiry into spatial patterns and characteristics, providing the potential to bring greater focus on present-day antisemitism, persecution, genocide and authoritarianism.

Educators are encouraged to take up work that intersects the civic goals of both geography and Holocaust education, yet literature on these intersections is sparse. We call upon Holocaust education and geography education organizations to develop and provide support for teachers around Holocaust geographies.

Comparative analyses in education science have traditionally focused on the category of geographic location as the comparative unit. However, comparison may involve many other units of analysis, such as culture, politics, curricula, education systems, social phenomena, and other categories of the lives of societies. Still, categories are inseparably linked to one or several geographic locations. Comparative approaches are often also dictated by the availability heuristic. Studying geographic units as the foci of comparative research is a necessary step for comparative presentation of the topic. According to Bray and Thomas, a researcher must always seek preliminary insight in the geographic unit to be analyzed before making the comparison. In social science research, a unit of analysis relates to the main object of the research, as it answers the question of “who” or “what” is going to be analyzed. The most common units of analysis are people, groups, organizations, artifacts or phenomena, and social interactions. Ragin and Amoroso have noted that comparative methods can be used to explain the commonness or diversity of results. This paper shows how comparative research can be approached in ways that have not been discussed, grounded in the historically variable understanding of the very term “comparison.” They are, for example, The Ogden-Richards triangle, The Porphyrian Tree, Classification strategies – Mill’s Canons, The chaos of the world – the order of science, Weber’s ideal types, Raymond Boudon’s formula, and the Möbius strip in comparativism.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between company reputation and dividend policy.

In this study, sample of 98,809 firm-year observations from 22 countries covering 2005–2016 were used.

Firm reputation concerns are associated with higher propensities to pay dividends and payout ratios. Further, this positive effect is more pronounced for firms with high free cash flows, high information asymmetry and low institutional monitoring. The results are robust to an instrumental variable approach, propensity score matching and the Heckman two-stage correction approach while addressing endogeneity concerns.

These findings have significant implications for various stakeholders, such as existing and potential investors, managers, policymakers and regulators, by providing insights into the relationship between corporate reputation and firm dividend payout decisions. Corporate reputation is highlighted as crucial for accessing finance, emphasizing the role of national regulators and policymakers in facilitating firms' efforts to improve their reputation. The study highlights the dynamics of corporate reputation and dividend payout, calling for proactive engagement from regulators and policymakers. Crafting policies conducive to reputation-building can enhance firms' financial prospects, indicating the need for strategic interventions at managerial, regulatory and policy levels. Understanding the influence of economic context is crucial for firms to tailor reputation management strategies and optimize funding opportunities in different economic environments.

Overall, results suggest that reputation serves as a disciplining mechanism, where firms will pay dividends to maintain their reputations.

This research investigates the impact of Industry 4.0 technologies (I4.0) on the resilience of manufacturing firms against the COVID-19 pandemic. The study explores the mediating effects linked to the firm’s supply chain resilience and absorptive capacity in this relationship.

The empirical analysis involves 304 manufacturing firms and uses Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). A two-step hierarchical component model has been employed, considering the statistical analysis validation (reliability and validity) of the LOC and HOC models. The choice of the manufacturing industry is justified due to its degree of automation in emerging economies, such as Mexico, and its significant impact on job creation and the national gross domestic product.

The results confirm the positive impact of I4.0 technologies on companies’ resilience to COVID-19. They also support the indirect effects of the firm’s supply chain resilience and absorptive capacity. Absorptive capacity was found to have a higher significant indirect effect than supply chain resilience. Consequently, the study accentuates the significance of leveraging external knowledge and highlights the role of acquisition, assimilation, transformation, and exploitation capabilities in enhancing absorptive capacity.

The implications of this research extend to both manufacturing companies and public administrations, suggesting the need for I4.0 technologies implementation and supportive policies aimed at fostering absorptive capacity.

This research contributes to the literature by filling gaps in empirical studies in the context of developing economies. It provides valuable insights into the effects of I4.0 on absorptive capacity, supply chain resilience, and COVID-19 resilience, particularly in non-essential supply chains. It enriches the understanding of how I4.0 impacts the absorptive capacity and resilience of the supply chain during the COVID-19 crisis.

This paper aims to measure the prevalence of deviant behaviour among children who have dropped out of school and their subsequent arrests by the criminal justice system. The paper further analyses the relationship between the factors attributed to deviant behaviour and the subsequent arrests by the criminal justice system.

Using a semi-structured interview schedule, data was collected from 330 children who had already dropped out of school, remained on the streets or worked. The interviews took place in the presence of either of the children’s parents, with their consent.

The research identified 12 significant factors contributing to children dropping out of school. It also found six factors responsible for deviant behaviour. Furthermore, the study revealed that about 70% of the respondents were involved in one or more deviant behaviours. Among them, 51% had been detained by the Police in the past two years. Additionally, the linear regression model results positively predict the nexus among the six factors responsible for deviant behaviour.

The study is limited to male children who had dropped out of school, as female children were excluded. In connection with measuring deviant behaviour, it was challenging to discern whether it occurred before students left school, after or both.

The study suggests several measures, including policies such as early intervention programmes, providing quality education, mentoring and counselling for students and parents, vocational education opportunities, creating drug-free environments, career guidance, peer mentoring, community engagement, substance abuse prevention and rehabilitation programmes, to prevent school dropout and subsequent deviant behaviour.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is unique to India. The moderation regression model represents an exceptional finding. This study constitutes another addition to the field of child welfare while also indicating scope for future research.

We model the relation between excess returns, fund size and industry size for active equity funds.

We study and contrast four markets – global equities, emerging markets, Australia core and Australia small caps – and use the results to investigate the extent to which funds deviate from estimated capacity.

We uncover a significantly negative relation between returns and both fund size and industry size across all markets. The estimated percentage of funds operating above versus below capacity varies both across markets and over time, as does the role played by fund size versus industry size. We find a greater prevalence of funds operating significantly below than above capacity, in contrast to findings for US equity mutual funds. Significant deviations from estimated capacity persist for a median of between two and six quarters.

Our main contribution is to show that the dynamics governing deviations from capacity for active equity funds vary across markets.