Search results

To highlight that the risk retention rules associated with the holding of securitization investments, commonly thought to apply only to the sponsors and manufacturers of securitisations, also affect EU institutional investors and potentially impact non-EU fund managers that invest in these assets.

To address which classes of investor are affected and then to provide an overview of the obligations on affected investors that do invest in securitization investments.

There is much that is straightforward about the relevant obligations but there are a number of quirks that have not necessarily been fully appreciated by the market: these include the applicability to investors on a “look through” basis that may, inter alia, affect US credit fund managers with EU institutional investors.

EU institutional investors that do invest in this asset class should be considering the need to take practical steps to prepare written due diligence materials; non-EU credit managers that run e.g. ABS funds offered into the EU or in which there may be EU institutional investors should consider if they may have any obligations under the EU Securitization Regulation.

The aspects of the Securitization Regulation that affect institutional investors and regular fund managers have not been addressed as thoroughly as they have by the main securitization sector (banks, CLO managers and similar). This article seeks to remedy that and should prove of value to compliance, legal and other professionals at those types of institution.

This paper aims to find out accredited social health activists’ (ASHA) communication competence and effectiveness while working as leaders with groups in the rural setting. ASHA, as the “first point of contact” for pregnant women in rural areas, plays a significant role in building awareness and disseminating key information at critical times (e.g. antenatal and post-natal period), promotes healthy maternal and newborn care practices and facilitates identification and referral of maternal and newborn complications. ASHA plays critical role of a leader in bridging the gap between health system and community. In the entire process, effective communication competency is the key to her effectiveness.

The study adopts seven items from the farmers communication (FACOM) scale of communication measures developed by Udai Pareek and Y.P Singh. Preliminary editing of the items was done keeping certain points in mind such as the items should not be judgemental, should be acts of behaviour, should be observable and should be simple. This scale was adopted for the study, as it was designed to measure farmers’ communication competence and suited the context. The evaluation criteria included the seven essential elements of communication identified in the FACOM scale.

Results from the study identified a need to sensitise ASHAs on the critical role of effective communication and need for investing more in building her capacity for health communication. The trainings being imparted to ASHAs have to be strengthened in terms of communication skills. They should focus upon developing all three variables of communication skills equally and integrating them to get desired results.

The study was conducted in one state while the programme is running across the country. The sample size was small.

The learning of the study will help in developing a better understanding of the beneficiaries’ perspectives and their expectations regarding ASHAs communication process in the leadership role which she performs. Such understanding will not only be instructive but may also prove transformative for the benefit of both ASHAs and her community, whose support is critical to the success of the programme. This learning will feed into the policy planning and communication and capacity building strategy of the ASHA programme and may lead to better and more effective strategies and tools of communication.

Research study is original. Keeping the observers’ status in mind, questionnaire was translated in Hindi language. Twenty ASHAs were selected randomly from small villages of Uttar Pradesh, the largest state in India. The scale was presented to at least five observers (all females) for one ASHA. These observers/judges were the ones who knew ASHA well and with whom she had communicated at some point of time as part of her work.

The purpose of this study is to explore the social norms influencing consumer participation in consumption tax evasion (CTE) by examining both passive and active roles from a social marketing perspective. The study aims to identify the factors that prompt consumers to engage in or abstain from CTE, with a particular focus on the interplay of descriptive and injunctive norms and perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE).

The study utilizes a scenario-based experimental design involving 306 respondents in India, stratified by demographics and tax compliance attitudes. We used the PROCESS Macro to analyze the data using established scales for measuring descriptive and injunctive norms and PCE.

The results indicate that descriptive norms significantly increase the intention to engage in CTE, while injunctive norms weaken this relationship. PCE strengthens the moderating effect of injunctive norms. These findings highlight the mechanisms driving passive participation in CTE.

This study underscores the importance of societal norms and individual efficacy beliefs in shaping ethical behaviors such as tax compliance. By understanding these factors, governments can better design social marketing campaigns and public policies that foster a more compliant and ethically aware society.

The originality of this research lies in its examination of both passive and active consumer participation in CTE, a relatively understudied area within tax compliance literature. It extends the discourse on social norms and tax evasion by incorporating the nuanced roles of descriptive and injunctive norms and offers valuable insights for academicians, tax authorities and policymakers interested in behavioral interventions.

The case on Moodcafe captures the journey of the start-up and its entrepreneurs from the beginning till the fund-raising stage. The case brings forth critical decisions that each entrepreneur or the team of co-founders have to address during their start-up journey. This short case gives opportunity to delve into two aspects mainly a) As a founder, which investor should one choose for seeking funds and what should be the terms and conditions of investment? and b) How can one review and assess the business model of a start-up?

The aim of this paper is to study the effect of laser shock peening (LSP) on mechanical behaviour of the laser-directed energy deposition (LDED)-based printed 15-5 PH stainless steel with U and V notches. The study specifically concentrates on the evaluation of effect of scan strategy, machining and LSP processing on microstructural, texture evolution and fatigue behaviour of LDED-printed 15-5 PH steel.

For LSP treatment, 15-5 PH steel was printed using LDED process with bidirectional scanning strategy (XX [θ = 0°) and XY [θ = 90°]) at optimised laser power of 600 W with a scanning speed of 300 mm/min and a powder feed rate of 3 g/min. Furthermore, LSP treatment was conducted on the V- and U-notched fatigue specimens extracted from LDED-built samples at laser energy of 3.5 J with a pulse width of 10 ns using laser spot diameter of 3 mm. Post to the LSP treatment, the surface roughness, fatigue life assessment and microstructural evolution analysis is performed. For this, different advanced characterisation techniques are used, such as scanning electron microscopy attached with electron backscatter diffraction for microstructure and texture, X-ray diffraction for residual stress (RS) and structure information, Vicker’s hardness tester for microhardness and universal testing machine for low-cycle fatigue.

It is observed that both scanning strategies during the LDED printing of 15-5 PH steel and laser peening have played significant role in fatigue life. Specimens with the XY printing strategy shows higher fatigue life as compared to XX with both U- and V-notched conditions. Furthermore, machining and LSP treatment led to a significant improvement of fatigue life for both scanning strategies with U and V notches. The extent of increase in fatigue life for both XX and XY scanning strategy with V notch is found to be higher than U notch after LSP treatment, though without LSP samples with U notch have a higher fatigue life. As fabricated sample is found to have the lowest fatigue life as compared to machines and laser peened with both scan strategies.

This study presents an innovative method to improve the fatigue life of 15-5 PH stainless steel by changing the microstructure, texture and RS with the adoption of a suitable scanning strategy, machining and LSP treatment as post-processing. The combination of preferred microstructure and compressive RS in LDED-printed 15-5 PH stainless steel achieved with a synergy between microstructure and RS, which is responsible to improve the fatigue life. This can be adopted for the futuristic application of LDED-printed 15-5 PH stainless steel for different applications in aerospace and other industries.

The study proposes to empirically test a model that illustrates how identical elements (IEs), transfer design and trainer performance as training predictors affect trainees' motivation to improve work through learning (MTIWL) and training transfer (TT) in the Indian context.

An online survey was conducted to validate the study model. The quantitative data collected from 360 executives and managers were analyzed using the covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) technique.

The study finds that trainees' MTIWL has a full mediation impact between transfer design, trainer performance and TT. However, a partial mediating impact of MTIWL was found between IEs and TT.

This is the first study that empirically explores the mediating mechanism of MTIWL between IEs, transfer design, trainer performance and TT. This study extends the current understanding of trainees' MTIWL that links the cumulative influence of training predictors to TT.

Goat milk yoghurt differs from cow milk yoghurt in that it has a different casein composition and content, which presents several technical challenges, including consistency with an appropriate flavor.

In this study, the antioxidant potential and phytochemical profiling of the fruits (pineapple and papaya) and vegetable (carrot) extracts was evaluated and the effect of their purees on the quality and stability of stirred goat milk yoghurt (GMY) were investigated. The qualities of stirred GMY with carrot (CrY), pineapple (PaY) and papaya (PpY) purees were assessed against the product without puree (CY).

The carrot puree had the highest moisture, ash contents and pH value. The carrot extract had the highest DPPH radical scavenging activity, while the pineapple extract had the highest total phenolic value (1.59 µg GAE/g) and flavonoids content (0.203 µg CE/g). The scanning of all the puree extracts in GC-MS indicated that 5-hydroxymethylfurfural was a major component. The phytochemical quantification of the extracts through multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) against 16 compounds showed the presence of sinapic acid, cinnamic acid, pthalic acid, ferulic acid, 4-OH-benzoic acid, 3-OH-benzoic acid, p-coumaric acid, caffeic acid and vanillic acid in different quantities. The addition of purees and storage period had a significant (p < 0.05) effect on the moisture, pH, titratable acidity, syneresis, viscosity, color values and sensory properties of the products. In all the samples after 15 days of storage, Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus counts remained above the recommended level of 106CFU/g. Stirred GMY sample produced with pineapple puree showed a higher syneresis and viscosity, but the CrY sample demonstrated the highest antioxidant activity. The developed formulations remained stable with minimum changes in quality and sensory attribute during refrigerated storage for 10 days.

This study suggests that addition of fruit and vegetable improve the viscosity and sensory perception of the product with minimal use of synthetic flavor and preservatives.

COVID-19 induced uncertainty in the firms’ business transactions, financial markets and product-market competition, causing a severe organizational legitimacy crisis. Using the organizational legitimacy perspective and agency theory, this paper aims to study the relationship between prior corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, monitoring cost (MC) and firm performance.

This study uses a quarterly panel (16,924 firm-quarter observations from 61 countries for CSR and 53,345 firm-quarter observations from 55 countries for MC) for 14 quarters from January 2018 to June 2021. This study uses panel fixed-effect regression models to estimate the effect of CSR activities and MC (measured as audit fees) on firm performance during the COVID-19 period.

This study finds a U-shaped relationship between CSR and firm performance. This relationship is strengthened during COVID-19. In contrast, this study finds an inverted U-shaped relationship between firm MC and firm performance. However, this relationship is weakened during the pandemic.

This study contributes to theory and practice on maintaining organizational legitimacy and reducing agency costs during the pandemic. This study shows that firms’ prior legitimacy-gaining practices, such as CSR activities and MC, provide an opportunity to increase firm value. To balance agency costs and legitimacy benefits, firm managers also need to identify the optimal level of CSR activities and MC.

This study aims to understand the impact of negative supervisor gossip on job performance among South Indian hotel employees. The focus is not just on the direct influence, but also on the mediating role of feedback-seeking behaviour (FSB) and the moderating effects of the agreeableness trait.

Through purposive sampling, data was garnered from South Indian hotel employees. Comprehensive analyses were performed using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The analysis shows that FSB plays a mediating role in the positive relationship between negative supervisor gossip and job performance. In addition, the influence of gossip on FSB and subsequent job performance was more pronounced for employees with high agreeableness.

This research underscores the complex interplay between negative supervisor gossip and job performance, revealing that such gossip can catalyze FSB process in employees. It suggests that under certain conditions, negative gossip can be transformed into a constructive force that enhances job performance, challenging traditional perceptions of gossip in the workplace.

The findings underscore the importance of understanding the effects of workplace dynamics, like supervisor gossip, on employee behaviour and performance. Recognizing the influence of individual personality traits, such as agreeableness, can guide management strategies for fostering a productive work environment.

This research sheds light on the intricate interplay between negative supervisor gossip, FSB and agreeableness, offering a novel perspective on their combined impact on job performance. It not only enriches the existing literature on workplace communication but also broadens the understanding of the role of personality traits in shaping employee responses and outcomes.

Higher education institutions understand the importance of the quality of work life (QoWL) since it directly impacts faculty members’ involvement in providing high-quality teaching. The purpose of this paper is to compare the QoWL of faculty members in undergraduate medical and undergraduate engineering programs offered at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Saudi Arabia.

An exploratory study design was adopted and 100 faculty members from each program were selected. A pretested QoWL questionnaire was distributed among faculty members using the Questionpro online survey portal.

Results showed that there is no significant difference between the two programs with regard to the overall QoWL (p>0.05). However, a significant difference was observed with respect to dimensions such as “working condition/environment,” “psychosocial factors at work place” and “job satisfaction and job security.” Also, there is a positive relationship observed between all the dimensions of QoWL (p<0.05).

This study will help educational policy planners to understand the differences in QoWL of faculty members in different programs so as to develop appropriate strategies for its improvement.