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This study aims to examine and compare the credit risk management (CRM) scenario of Islamic banks (IBs) and conventional banks (CBs) in Pakistan, keeping in view the phenomenal growth of Islamic banking and its future implications.

A sample of five CBs and four IBs was chosen out of the whole banking industry for the study. Secondary data obtained from the banks’ annual financial reports for 13 years, starting from 2004 to 2016, were analyzed. Multiple regression, correlation and descriptive analysis were used in the examination of the data.

The results show that loan quality (LQ) has a positive and significant impact on CRM for both IBs and CBs. Asset quality (AQ), on the other hand, has a negative impact on CRM in the case of IBs, but has a significantly positive relation with CRM in the case of CBs. The impact of 16 ratios measuring LQ and AQ have also been individually checked on CRM, by making use of a regression model using a dummy variable of financial crises for robust comparison among CBs and IBs. The model proved significant, and CRM performance of IBs was observed to be better than that of CBs. Moreover, the mean average value of financial ratios used as a measuring tool for these variables shows that the CRM performance of IBs operating in Pakistan was better than that of CBs over the period of the study.

The research findings are expected to facilitate bankers, investors, academics and policy makers to build a better understanding of CRM practices as adopted by CBs and IBs. The findings would be useful in formulating policy measures for the progress of the banking industry in Pakistan.

This research is unique in terms of its approach toward analyzing and comparing CRM performance of CBs and IBs. Such work has not been carried out before in the Pakistani banking industry.

This study is a pre-COVID-19 exposition of the existing situation about external debt-GDP relationship, incorporating corruption into the hypothesis, making South Africa the object of the study. The aim is to examine the causal relationship between corruption, economic growth and external debt, and in the end proffer solutions to the problems arising therefrom.

The study employed ARDL technique on time series data running from 1990 to 2019 with real gross domestic product as the dependent variable and external debt, external debt servicing, corruption, inflation and capital formation as regressors. Necessary tests that include unit root, cointegration, CUSUM and CUSUMSq, normality, serial correlation and heteroscedasticity were performed on the model.

The study shows that corruption, inflation and external debt servicing exert negative influences on economic growth while the effect of investment on growth was positive. External debt's effect in the short run was positive while its long-run effect on growth was negative. Among other things, the need to improve and strengthen public institutions in addition to targeting tax evaders and avoiders for increased government revenue were emphasized.

The study incorporates corruption into the country specific debt-GDP debate as against earlier studies that excluded corruption in their time series analysis or that were cross-country based. The authors also exposit the existing knowledge of the debt-GDP hypothesis before the outbreak of COVID 19 pandemic. This is expected to serve as a precursor to subsequent studies on the rising debt of South Africa during and after the pandemic.

This paper aims to assess the influence of emotional intelligence (EI) on the perceived internal control performance in the Lebanese companies.

The goal of this study is to decide whether there is a connection between “emotional intelligence” and perceived efficacy of “internal control” in Lebanese organizations. For the benefit and purpose of this research, a quantitative methodology will be applied. The data was collected by the use of self-directed and pre-coded questionnaires to test hypotheses made, making it a deductive research.

The findings showed that the personality traits of the members of the audit team play a key role in cultivating a control climate that is more conducive to effective control. Moreover, personality traits were key in boosting trust and openness in communication that can be seen as antecedents to having a system where all key auditing professionals within the organization can cooperate to boost the effectiveness of the internal control framework. These personality traits amplified the impact of the EI of audit manager on the overall effectiveness of the COSO framework, thus leading to improved efficiency of internal controls.

The exploratory aspect of this study have shown results that are general but create a basis for future comprehensive researches. This study was limited to a relatively small sample, due to the small size of Lebanon and due to the Pandemic that has limited our access to more data. This research did not regulate other relevant variables such as gender, experience, educational level and age. Nevertheless, the importance of the findings is they ascertain that internal control is not a rigid technical function that is primarily concerned with accounting and financial disciplines, rather it extends to organizational psychology and behavior.

The practical implication of studying EM and personality in Lebanese organizations is to describe and understand how it affects the effectiveness of the internal control and thus the survival of the organization. When organizations are aware of such a strong impact, they will try to increase their maturity level in this regard and further seeks more efforts in tackling the EI aspect. As a summary, the practical implication of this paper is to understand how all those variables affect the effectiveness of the internal control and thus the survival of the organization.

The subject of this study consists of many human-related aspects such as personality and human behavior. Once these elements are combined with the internal control framework, it will have an added value at the social level by enhancing the behavior of people and their perception of others' emotions and oneself emotions, in addition to improving their performance which reflects on enhancing the overall organizational performance. Studying EI allows to understand and manage emotions in order to create positive social interactions. The benefits of EI are vast in terms of personal, academic and professional success.

Due to the lack of research on this topic, this research will contribute to explore the field. Future studies will benefit from this analysis while using a larger sample. Future work should aim to include not only auditors but all staff of the company. Further research is required to decide whether the results of this analysis are generalized across various positions and industries and to determine whether EI is the only influential aspect involving a significant number of social interactions. In addition, this article can be used as a basis for the implementation of internal control with a COSO framework that involves the EQ of everyone in the organization.

This study aims to examine the effects of climate change and agricultural technologies on crop production in Vietnam for the period 1990–2018.

Several econometric techniques – such as the augmented Dickey–Fuller, Phillips–Perron, the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds test, variance decomposition method (VDM) and impulse response function (IRF) are used for the empirical analysis.

The results of the ARDL bounds test confirm the significant dynamic relationship among the variables under consideration, with a significance level of 1%. The primary findings indicate that the average annual temperature exerts a negative influence on crop yield, both in the short term and in the long term. The utilization of fertilizer has been found to augment crop productivity, whereas the application of pesticides has demonstrated the potential to raise crop production in the short term. Moreover, both the expansion of cultivated land and the utilization of energy resources have played significant roles in enhancing agricultural output across both in the short term and in the long term. Furthermore, the robustness outcomes also validate the statistical importance of the factors examined in the context of Vietnam.

This study provides persuasive evidence for policymakers to emphasize advancements in intensive agriculture as a means to mitigate the impacts of climate change. In the research, the authors use average annual temperature as a surrogate measure for climate change, while using fertilizer and pesticide usage as surrogate indicators for agricultural technologies. Future research can concentrate on the impact of ICT, climate change (specifically pertaining to maximum temperature, minimum temperature and precipitation), and agricultural technological improvements that have an impact on cereal production.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine how climate change and technology effect crop output in Vietnam from 1990 to 2018. Various econometrics tools, such as ARDL modeling, VDM and IRF, are used for estimation.

Extending the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), this study investigates the impact of social media influencers (SMI) on consumer well-being (CW) as well as the influence of CW on purchase intention.

A between-subjects experiment (macro- vs mega-influencer) was conducted to assess the proposed hypotheses. A total of 190 consumers participated in the experiment, and SmartPLS 3.3 was used for multigroup analyses.

Overall, argument quality (AQ), source's credibility (SC) and influencer's kindness positively predict CW, and CW predicts purchase intention. It was also found that SC is more important when information comes from a mega-influencer, whilst kindness is essential for a macro-influencer.

The results of this study imply that CW should be an essential component of influencer marketing strategy. Marketing managers should hire credible and kind influencers who can produce quality arguments. Additionally, the selection of SMI (macro- vs mega-influencer) should be aligned with the marketing objective and type of persuasion required.

This is one of the early attempts to extend ELM by introducing influencer kindness as a peripheral cue. Moreover, the study offers novelty by examining the effects of influencer characteristics (AQ, SC and kindness) on CW and comparing these effects across macro- and mega-influencers.

藉著擴展詳儘可能性模型, 本研究擬探討網絡紅人對消費者福祉的影響, 以及消費者福祉對購買意圖的影響。

研究人員進行被試間實驗 (中網紅對大型網紅) , 以對提出的假設進行評價。190名消費者參與實驗, 研究人員使用SmartPLS 3.3 進行多群組分析。

總的來說, 論點品質、來源可信度和網紅的仁慈體貼, 均能積極預測消費者福祉, 而消費者福祉亦可預測購買意圖。研究人員亦發現, 若資訊是來自大型網紅的話, 來源可信度則更形重要, 而對中網紅來說, 仁慈體貼則是不可或缺的。

研究結果暗示, 消費者福祉應是網紅市場營銷戰略的基本要素。市場經理應僱用可靠、仁慈體貼、並能提出優質論點的網紅。而且, 網絡紅人 (中網紅對大型網紅) 的挑選, 必須與營銷目標和說服的種類互相協調。

本研究為早期的嘗試, 利用引進網絡紅人的仁慈體貼作為周邊線索, 來擴展詳儘可能性模型。另外, 本研究探討網絡紅人的特徵 (論點品質、來源可信度和仁慈體貼) 會如何影響消費者福祉; 研究人員亦跨中網紅和大型網紅, 對這些影響進行比較, 就此而言, 本研究提供了創新的研究意念。

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role external debt and foreign direct investment play in influencing financial development in Africa.

Annual data on external debt, foreign direct investment and financial development were extracted from the World Bank World Development Indicators from 2002 to 2015. The data employed were analysed within causal research design and the dynamic panel using generalized method of moment estimation approach.

The findings revealed that external debt and foreign direct investment have a significant positive relationship with financial development in African economies. Governments of the sampled economies should enact policies that would help attract high level of foreign direct investment as it contributes positively to financial development. Finally, governments of the sampled African economies should ensure foreign direct investment and external funds borrowed are channelled to productive sectors.

The paper analysed the relationship between external debt, FDI inflows and financial sector development. The paper is the first in terms of such analysis within the framework of the dual-gap framework, which is the first time in these kinds of studies. Previous studies have concentrated on the effect of financial sector on FDI and not the other way around.

This paper aims to observe the development of the Sharīʿah governance framework (SGF) and practice in Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) in Malaysia.

The study is a qualitative-based research. It uses various documents and content analysis approach to understand and analyze the structure, process and practice of SGF in IFIs in Malaysia.

It is found that the Central Bank of Malaysia, Bank Negara Malaysia, has attempted to develop a comprehensive framework of Sharīʿah governance for IFIs in Malaysia. The framework governs the practice of the industry, covers stakeholders’ scope of duties and responsibilities and provides details on processes and procedures in the operations of IFIs to achieve the objective of Sharīʿah compliance. To maintain the relevance of the SGF to the needs of the industry, the framework has also been updated recently in 2017. The amendments aim to strengthen the effectiveness of Sharīʿah governance implementation within the Islamic finance industry.

This study attempts to comprehensively examine the evolution of the SGF Sharīʿah governance framework for IFIs in Malaysia. The Malaysian model of the SGF is unique and could be emulated by other countries in developing the Islamic finance industry in their respective jurisdictions.

Singapore has had a dramatic spike in coronavirus infections in early 2020, with thousands of new cases linked to clusters in migrant workers (MWs) dormitories. To control the spread, the Government attempted to isolate the dormitories, test workers and move symptomatic patients into quarantine facilities. But those measures have left thousands of them trapped in their dormitories, living in cramped conditions that make social distancing near impossible. This paper investigates how COVID-19 has impacted the lives of these workers in varied ways and highlights the migrant workers' belief if Singapore’s effort has been enough for them during the COVID-19 pandemic? The focus is mainly on the low-skilled workers from India and Bangladesh, who are prone to be affected in various ways by COVID-19. My collected data show that migrant workers are grateful to the Singapore state for the support extended during COVID-19. I used the concept of subcultures to explain the condition of the workers in the state of Singapore. Because they expect so little social protection from the state, they are genuinely grateful for its support during the pandemic.

In recent years, the fast growth of Islamic banks (IBs) has generated debates among policymakers and economists about the sustainability and performance of these institutions. This paper aims to undertake a comparative analysis of the financial performance of IBs and conventional banks (CBs) in Pakistan over the period 2008–2019 to evaluate how IBs are faring compared to their conventional peers.

This paper considers Financial Ratio Analysis (FRA) to analyse and compare the performance of the top-10 IBs and CBs operating in Pakistan. The sample includes five full-fledged IBs and five CBs which offer Islamic windows in Pakistan. The top-five performing CBs offering Islamic windows have been selected in this study.

The results show that IBs are better capitalized, less risky and have higher liquidity as compared to CBs. In contrast, the profits of IBs are found to be lower than those of CBs.

The study has provided an analysis of financial performance only for Pakistan. A cross-country analysis could be more representative of the performance of IBs.

The study infers that the size of the Islamic banking industry in Pakistan should be enhanced by opening new branches and promoting Islamic financial literacy.

The study assists investors, creditors, debtors and managers in making better decisions. It also provides the latest valuable information to regulators and policymakers that can be used to make rules and policies for the finance industry in Pakistan.