Jennifer Driscoll, Ann Lorek, Elise Kinnear and Aisha Hutchinson
Information sharing and joint working between agencies undertaking direct work with children have long been recognised as fundamental to robust and effective safeguarding and…
Abstract
Purpose
Information sharing and joint working between agencies undertaking direct work with children have long been recognised as fundamental to robust and effective safeguarding and child protection arrangements. The public health response to Covid-19 disrupted those arrangements abruptly. This study aims to identify some of the innovative practices that have been implemented and how responses might inform planning for multi-agency working in the future.
Design/methodology/approach
This study presents reflections on preliminary fieldwork from a study of how agencies in London are responding to the challenges for multi-agency safeguarding arrangements created by the Covid-19 measures. It draws on the experience of expert practitioners in the research team as well as interviews with 17 senior professionals from local authorities, safeguarding partnerships and health.
Findings
The study participants endorsed known concerns around increased risks to children and raised new concerns about particular groups of children that under normal circumstances would not have been at risk. They identified some unexpected benefits derived from new arrangements, especially in relation to engagement with remote working.
Originality/value
Early insights are offered into promising initiatives to preserve strong multi-agency arrangements in crises and strengthen the resilience of the child protection system.
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Aisha Javaid, Mian Sajid Nazir and Kaneez Fatima
This paper contributes to the existing literature by extending the empirical work on the relationship between corporate governance and capital structure by analyzing the mediating…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper contributes to the existing literature by extending the empirical work on the relationship between corporate governance and capital structure by analyzing the mediating role of cost of capital in the non-financial firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).
Design/methodology/approach
The sample for this study includes non-financial firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (formerly Karachi Stock Exchange) for the period of 2004–2016. Based on 1800 firm-year observations, three approaches of panel data analysis are applied for the step-wise analysis of the underlying study. Firstly, Pooled OLS is applied. Secondly, fixed and random effect panel regression followed by the Hausman test to check the unobservable individual heterogeneity of the data. Hausman test indicates that the fixed-effects model is the most appropriate model for the sample panel data.
Findings
The study's findings are that board size, board composition, CEO/Chair duality, institutional ownership and managerial ownership have statistically significant direct effect on the firm's financing decisions. However, CEO/Chair duality, institutional ownership and managerial ownership have significant indirect effect on firm's capital structure decisions. The interesting finding of the paper is on the evidence of mediating role of cost of capital in the nexus of corporate governance and capital structure. Moreover, some conventional determinants of capital structure, including the firm's size, asset structure of the firm, profitability, business risk and growth, are found as determinants of capital structure decisions of the firms.
Research limitations/implications
There are a few limitations to our study which could be addressed by upcoming research. We did not include all the four mechanisms of corporate governance including board structure, audit structure, compensation structure and ownership structure. However, we used only five important attributes including board size, board composition and CEO/Chair duality form board structure, managerial ownership and institutional ownership form ownership structure of corporate governance as our explanatory variables to examine their impact on the capital structure choices of the firms. Future studies may fill this research gap by involving some other attributes of corporate governance and analyzing their effectiveness and impact on value relevant capital structure decisions. Further, due to limited time and resources, we only tested the mediating role of cost of capital, hence, future researchers can analyze the mediating and moderating roles of different variables which may influence the relationship between corporate governance and capital structure choices of the firms.
Practical implications
The study has many valuable guidelines and practical implications for the financial managers of the corporations. Our results will facilitate the policymakers in setting their corporate governance policies and practices and making the value relevant capital structure decisions in compliance with the implications of corporate governance mechanism. In addition, our study provides the empirical evidence in accordance with the argument that good governance practices, particularly the voluntary disclosures by the firm may reduce the information asymmetry which, ultimately, reduces the agency cost and the cost of capital for the firm. However, while deciding the financial policy of the corporations, managers can use our findings in order to assess the effectiveness of corporate governance practices employed by the firm in achieving the optimal capital structure at which the weighted average cost of capital is at its minimum level.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the literature by investigating the mediating role of the cost of capital in the relationship between corporate governance and capital structure decisions of the firms. This paper provides empirical evidence that corporate governance indirectly affects capital structure decisions through the mediating role of cost of capital.
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Aisha Sarwar, Lakhi Muhammad and Marianna Sigala
The study adopts the conservation of resources (COR) theory for providing a better theoretical understanding of punitive supervision as an antecedent of employees’ minor deviant…
Abstract
Purpose
The study adopts the conservation of resources (COR) theory for providing a better theoretical understanding of punitive supervision as an antecedent of employees’ minor deviant behaviors (namely, employee time theft and knowledge hiding) via creating cognitive mechanisms (employees’ perceived incivility). The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating role of employees’ RESILIENCY on employees’ ability to buffer the impacts of punitive supervision.
Design/methodology/approach
Data was gathered from 265 frontline hospitality employees in Pakistan. A survey was administered in person to establish trust and rapport with employees and so, collect reliable data.
Findings
The findings confirmed a direct and mediated impact of punitive supervision on employee minor deviant behaviors via creating perceived incivility. The moderating role of employees’ resiliency was also confirmed, as the employees’ resiliency helped them mitigate the impact of punitive supervision on perceived incivility.
Research limitations/implications
Data was collected from employees’ perceptions working in one industry and cultural setting. As employees’ perceptions (influenced by their cultural background) significantly affect their interpretations and reactions to punitive behavior, future research should validate and refine the findings by collecting data from a wider and diversified cultural and industry setting.
Practical implications
The findings provide theoretical explanatory power of the drivers and the contextual factors leading to minor employee deviant behaviors. The findings guide managers on how to develop pro-active and re-active strategies for deterring the occurrence and eliminating the consequences of punitive supervision.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature in multiple ways. It identifies and validates punitive supervision as an antecedent of Deviant Work Behavior (DWB). It provides a theoretical underpinning for explaining how punitive supervision spurs cognitive mechanisms, which in turn drive DWB. It also studies the nexus between destructive supervision and its outcomes in its entirety by studying the mediated and the moderating impacts of punitive supervision and perceived incivility, respectively.
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Cecilia Silvestri, Barbara Aquilani and Alessandro Ruggieri
Satisfaction in the tourism sector is a highly sensitive subject, and customer satisfaction (CS) has a significant impact on the choice of destinations made by tourists and on the…
Abstract
Purpose
Satisfaction in the tourism sector is a highly sensitive subject, and customer satisfaction (CS) has a significant impact on the choice of destinations made by tourists and on the decision to recommend them to friends or acquaintances. The purpose of this paper is to give empirical evidence of the dimensions of service quality (technical, functional and company image (CI)) and their connections in the sector of thermal tourism. It also aims at investigating the CI, seeking to understand whether some of the technical and functional service quality variables play a role in determining it.
Design/methodology/approach
An empirical survey was conducted by administering a structured research questionnaire in order to collect all necessary data, which was then elaborated to test the hypotheses using factor and multiple regression analyses.
Findings
The results of the survey confirm the direct impact of service quality dimensions (technical, functional and CI) on CS also in the thermal sector when considered individually. Moreover, when the CI was analyzed further, relational quality was found to be dependent on thermal employees’ capabilities, abilities, trustworthiness, availability, etc. Finally, when considered together, functional service quality and CI have a stronger effect on CS than technical service quality.
Originality/value
The originality of the present research relies on the following: a further contribution to the so-called “European perspective” of service quality; the study of service quality dimensions (technical, functional and CI) in the thermal sector; and evidencing the link between thermal employee characteristics and the relational quality factor of the CI, demonstrating that many aspects of this construct need further empirical investigation, in the wellness sector.