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This study uses bibliometric visualization techniques to comprehensively review the intertwined concepts of dark tourism, thana tourism and ghost tourism from 2000 to 2023. The research seeks to clarify the ambiguity and inconsistencies arising from the interchangeable use of these terms and sets forth a roadmap for future research endeavors.

This study meticulously extracts research keywords from 634 scholarly papers in the Scopus database. It undertakes a thorough bibliometric analysis utilizing the visualization of similarities (VOS) viewer and RStudio to map the interconnectedness of these tourism phenomena.

The study identifies and explores contemporary theories such as self-categorization theory, stimulus-organism-response theory, embodiment theory, self-determination theory, socio-cognitive theory, risk perception theory, services theory, dark tourism theory, social and cultural theory, push-pull theory, performance theory, and wound culture theory. The research reveals four primary clusters through keyword co-occurrence and bibliographic coupling analyses: dark tourism insights, dynamics of dark tourism, dark tourism review and dark tourism experiences, illustrating their interrelationships and robustness.

Dark tourism insights can guide ethical practices, ensuring respectful site management and accurate historical representation. Integrating dark tourism into broader destination strategies can diversify offerings, attract niche markets and contribute to preserving historical memory through reflective experiences.

This study's outcomes significantly contribute to tourism literature by enhancing our understanding of the overlapping terminologies associated with dark, thana and ghost tourism. This improved comprehension sheds light on the importance of the research agenda surrounding the concept of dark, thana and ghost tourism.

This study aims to analyze the impact of board gender diversity (BGD) on a bank’s financial stability. Moreover, it also examines whether digitalization and income diversification act as mediators (individual and serial) in this relationship.

Hypotheses were tested using data from Pakistan’s banking sector financial statements from 2017 to 2021. A two-step analytical approach was used: panel regression in STATA for initial hypothesis examination, followed by mediation analyses using bootstrapping in SPSS. In addition, mixed-effect ML regression was conducted to verify causation and ensure robust findings.

Results demonstrate that BGD, digitalization and income diversification are positively associated with higher financial stability. Moreover, as hypothesized, both digitalization and income diversification individually and sequentially mediate the relationship between BGD and banks’ financial stability.

It is important to acknowledge the study’s limited five-year timeframe. Further investigation is needed to determine the optimal board compositions, especially considering the study’s inclusion of up to 25% female directors on boards.

Policymakers and top management should prioritize increasing the number of female directors on boards for diversity. Banks that involve female directors can benefit from the synergies between gender diversity and digitization, along with the unique perspectives these women offer. This cooperative dynamic enables banks to explore and capitalize on innovative income diversification opportunities, enter new markets and ensure financial stability.

Research findings emphasize promotion of gender equality and meritocracy through increased female director representation. This fosters a more inclusive and cooperative decision-making culture, benefiting individual banks and setting a model for other sectors. Ultimately, it contributes to greater social acceptance of women executives.

The study reveals a novel mechanism, emphasizing the revolutionary impact of active female directors in tandem with digitalization, amplifying chances for income diversification and accelerating increased bank viability.

This paper aims to examine the connections between young Finnish consumers’ stimulation values, impulsive buying, financial problems and life satisfaction.

Path analysis with maximum likelihood robust standard errors estimation was used to examine relationships between variables and composite variables, as well as to explore indirect connections among them. The data set included 2,297 respondents aged 18–29 years in Finland.

Results show that stimulation values were directly positively associated with greater life satisfaction and indirectly linked to lower life satisfaction through impulsive buying and financial problems. Findings also reveal the connections between stimulation values and impulsive buying and between impulsive buying and financial problems.

This study extends the authors’ understanding of Schwartz’s values theory by showing how consumers’ stimulation values have both positive (i.e. higher life satisfaction) and negative (i.e. lower life satisfaction) outcomes.

This study brings recommendations for educators to reinforce young consumers’ media literacy and financial literacy to prevent the youth from developing a tendency toward impulsive buying and to seek stimulation more constructively. Also, from a public policy perspective, it would be beneficial to include more financial literacy and financial skills courses in young people’s curricula to help them recognize and resist impulsive buying tendencies, which can further reduce financial problems.

This study broadens the knowledge of the important connections between young consumers’ stimulation values, impulsive buying, financial problems and life satisfaction, an area where the authors’ understanding has been limited.

The study aims to explore the impact of ownership concentration (OC) on bank financial distress (FD). Furthermore, the bank’s financial stability levels determine the association between the two.

Bank data of 33 Indian commercial banks are procured for ten years (2013–2022). The panel data econometrics is applied for empirical estimations. The quantile regression approach is used to determine the association between OC and FD at different quantiles of the FD. Non-normalcy of the data is checked and ensured before applying the quantile regression.

Surprisingly, it is found that promoters have a nonlinear impact on the firm’s stability. The inverted U-shape result implies that as promoters cross a threshold level, the benefit of increasing promoters’ stake takes a beating and a further increase in promoters’ stakes adversely impacts the stability of the banks. Moreover, this threshold value increases while moving from low to high levels of stability in a quantile regression application.

This study uses promoters as the proxy for OC. Other existing definitions of OC are not used in the study, which can further improve the robustness of the results. Additionally, the use of the type of ownership (private, public or foreign) is also not adopted in the present study. Both the limitations can be the study’s future scope on the topic.

The high OC is supposed to influence corporate governance adversely. Therefore, policymakers recommend low OC for better governance. However, the present study finds evidence that a higher OC (high threshold of OC as the stability increases) would be better for financial stability. This situation demands a trade-off between governance and financial stability regarding OC.

The authors do not observe any study having the nonlinear impact of OC on financial stability (opposite of FD). Moreover, the threshold of OC for the optimum level of financial stability increases as stability goes high. This evidence using quantile regression and finding the turning point using a quadratic equation is also not seen in the literature.

This study proposes the integrated Qardhul Hasan and equity-based microenterprise development (IQEMD) model, a financial model for microenterprises in Muslim nation such as Afghanistan. This study aims to overcome the significant challenges these businesses face in securing financial resources, offering a tailored, sustainable solution to enhance their operations.

This study collected primary data via a survey from 466 microentrepreneurs in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Data analysis was performed using partial least squares with SmartPLS 4 software. The study’s validation of the proposed financial model among microenterprises was grounded in the theory of reasoned action, ensuring a solid theoretical basis for its findings.

The findings of this research revealed that the attitudes and subjective norms of Afghan microentrepreneurs positively influence their intention to use IQEMD Model. These findings provide important guidance for financing ventures and policymakers, highlighting the IQEMD model’s potential to improve financial strategies and practices for microenterprises in Afghanistan.

This study focuses solely on microenterprise development in Afghanistan, with its sample size and study area being clear constraints. Therefore, caution is advised when interpreting the results, which may not be broadly applicable. The reliance on current factors may also restrict the exploration of other important determinants affecting microenterprises’ behavioral intentions toward using the IQEMD model. Future research should consider incorporating new factors to optimize the IQEMD model and include interviews with more stakeholders to increase its validity.

The findings of this paper offer microenterprises an alternative source of financing to start or expand their businesses. This study holds implications for government and policymakers. By incorporating a nonprofit organization as suggested in this model, it assists the government in reducing expenditures associated with the development of microenterprises.

This study is a pioneering effort in merging Qardhul Hasan and equity-based financing for microenterprise development. It significantly contributes to existing research by underscoring the effectiveness and impact of such financing as a viable source for these enterprises. These strategies could notably boost productivity, employment and gross domestic product growth. The study enhances understanding of alternative financing models in the microenterprise sector.