George Papachristou, Stephanos Papadamou and Eleftherios Spyromitros
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the response of investors to the announcements on the inclusion and exclusion of companies from the FTSE-ASE 20 index.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the response of investors to the announcements on the inclusion and exclusion of companies from the FTSE-ASE 20 index.
Design/methodology/approach
Data on the inclusion and exclusion of companies from the FTSE-ASE 20 index in the period 2000-2012 were used. The authors performed an event study analysis using a constant return model and a market model. Two different measures of aggregated abnormal returns, namely the cumulating abnormal returns and the buy-and-hold abnormal return, were used in this investigation.
Findings
The results suggest that the exclusion of a company from the index has a significant negative effect on stock returns. Specifically, such a stock takes more than 15 days to recover. However, for a company’s inclusion in the index, the authors observe short-lived positive reactions on stock returns.
Practical implications
Capital market regulators and investors should find the policy implications of this paper meaningful. Investment strategies can be implemented on the basis of the news of exclusion from the index, which can lead to higher performance for investors. As far as authorities are concerned, the decision of inclusion and exclusion to the most significant stock index in the Greek market should be carefully considered because it creates financial instability for a significant time period.
Originality/value
By using a battery of parametric and non-parametric econometric tests, the existence of abnormal returns of the FTSE-ASE 20 index is explored over a long time period, including the recent financial crisis.
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Donnie Adams, Mabel Hwee Joo Tan and Bambang Sumintono
Teaching and learning are being transformed by digital technology, where the present generation of students, termed millennials, are more adept with the increasingly digitalised…
Abstract
Purpose
Teaching and learning are being transformed by digital technology, where the present generation of students, termed millennials, are more adept with the increasingly digitalised world we live in. Following this, lecturers and institutions are adapting and adopting a blended learning model across disciplines, which now commands an entire domain of research and application. However, questions remain about how ready students are for a blended learning model of instruction. The purpose of this study is to investigate students’ readiness for blended learning in a leading Malaysian private higher education institution.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a non-experimental quantitative research design. Data were gathered from a sample of 274 pre-university and undergraduate students using the blended learning readiness engagement questionnaire. Data was analysed using WINSTEPS Rasch model measurement software to determine the validity and reliability of the instrument. Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) scores, (logit) value of the item and (logit) value of a person was used to examine students’ readiness for a blended learning model of instruction and specifically assess their readiness based on gender, age, ethnicity and field of study.
Findings
Findings indicate that students were ready for blended learning. Further analysis indicated there were differences in students’ readiness for blended learning based on gender, age, ethnicity and field of study.
Originality/value
This study provides insight into students’ readiness towards blended learning in a leading Malaysian private higher education institution, discusses implications for blended learning practices and offers recommendations for future research.
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Donnie Adams, Kee Man Chuah, Bambang Sumintono and Ahmed Mohamed
Universities have shifted from face-to-face learning environments to e-learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the sudden change to online teaching has raised…
Abstract
Purpose
Universities have shifted from face-to-face learning environments to e-learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the sudden change to online teaching has raised concerns among lecturers about students' readiness for e-learning. This study investigates students' readiness for e-learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and specifically assesses any significant differences between students' gender, age, ethnicity, level of education, field of study and their readiness for an e-learning environment.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employed a non-experimental quantitative research design. Data were gathered from a sample of 298 undergraduate and 101 postgraduate students. WINSTEPS Rasch model measurement software was used to determine the reliability and validity of the research instrument. Descriptive, inferential statistics and differential item functioning (DIF) test were used to assess students' readiness for an e-learning mode of instruction with the latter specifically analysing students' demographic factors and their readiness for an e-learning environment.
Findings
Findings identified that most students are ready for an e-learning mode of instruction. Further analysis indicated that there were differences in students' readiness for e-learning based on their demographic profiles.
Research limitations/implications
This study provides insights on students' readiness towards e-learning, discusses implications for e-learning practices in higher education institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic and offers recommendations for future research.
Originality/value
This study provides evidences of students' readiness for e-learning in respect to their gender, age, ethnicity, level of education and field of study. This information could help lecturers to reflect on their own teaching practices, adjust their teaching approaches and subsequently, develop appropriate e-learning methods that best suit the student diversity in their classrooms.
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Siew H. Chan, Qian Song, Pailin Trongmateerut and Laurie H. Rivera
Extending the study of Chan et al. (2016), this paper aims to focus on specific aspects of performance (conceptual and factual knowledge) to provide insight into whether computer…
Abstract
Purpose
Extending the study of Chan et al. (2016), this paper aims to focus on specific aspects of performance (conceptual and factual knowledge) to provide insight into whether computer game attributes designed into Prrinciples Aren’t That Hard (PATH) improve performance.
Design/methodology/approach
A between-subjects experiment is conducted to test the hypotheses. The experimental and control groups are PATH and traditional paper medium, respectively.
Findings
The results reveal that PATH users perform better on the conceptual knowledge questions compared to the traditional paper medium users. No significant difference in performance on the factual knowledge (computational) questions is found between PATH and traditional paper medium users.
Research limitations/implications
This study demonstrates that PATH creates an engaging learning environment, which facilitates the acquisition of conceptual knowledge and improved (conceptual) performance. Research can investigate whether technology may be used to facilitate automation of computational tasks which downplay the importance of computational skills (factual knowledge) and focus on the design of computer game attributes in educational or training programs to enhance conceptual knowledge and (conceptual) performance.
Practical implications
The findings of this study will assist educators and educational technology developers to identify and design motivation-enhancing computer game features to promote remember and understand cognitive processes which improve (conceptual) performance.
Originality/value
Game-based learning serves as the underlying theoretical framework for the design of PATH used in an experimental study to examine the positive effects of motivation-enhancing computer game attributes on remember and understand cognitive processes which facilitate (conceptual) performance. This study also uses separate measures of performance; that is, conceptual and factual knowledge, to provide additional insight into the findings of Chan et al. (2016).
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Ioannis Dokas, George Geronikolaou, Stephanos Papadamou and Eleftherios Spyromitros
This study investigates the dynamic interactions between the financing of entrepreneurship through Private Equity and several factors, such as stock market valuations, gross…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the dynamic interactions between the financing of entrepreneurship through Private Equity and several factors, such as stock market valuations, gross domestic product and consumer prices, and the effect of monetary policy in the decision for investments.
Design/methodology/approach
Our methodology consists in applying a panel vector autoregression approach that allows testing the causality of the variables of interest without assuming any specific direction. We disaggregate private equity to venture capital investments and later stage private equity and we uncover their asymmetric response to the examined factors. All types of investments are shown to be affected by GDP, stock prices, consumer prices and interest rates. However, the effect of the latter three variables are evidently more pronounced in later stage private equity compared to venture capital.
Findings
Our findings contribute to the understanding of the motives behind Venture Capital and Private Equity financings and uncover novel paths of the transmission of monetary policy to entrepreneurial finance.
Originality/value
The novelty of this research concerns the investigation of the monetary policy impact on investment decisions, including venture capital and private equity. This article provides significant highlights for the first time in the relative literature, offering new knowledge in the investment decision-making process in a dynamic framework.
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Steve Herbert and Katherine Beckett
In Seattle and other cities, recent expansions of trespass law make the regulation of public space easier and more extensive. A range of new tools allow police officials to clear…
Abstract
In Seattle and other cities, recent expansions of trespass law make the regulation of public space easier and more extensive. A range of new tools allow police officials to clear spaces of those deemed undesirable; they define zones of exclusion and increase the police's power to make arrests. The use of these tools extends contemporary practices of using criminal law to address instances of urban “disorder.” We draw on data from Seattle to catalog some of these new tools, the capabilities they create, and the implications they generate. One important such implication is that they work to push undesirables so far to the margins – spatially, socially, politically, legally – as to render them far outside the body politic. The use of these techniques thus raises important questions about the advisability of addressing social problems by increasing the power of the criminal law.
Carlos Cabral-Cardoso, Maria Céu Cortez and Luísa Lopes
The purpose of this paper is to examine, from the venture capital (VC) managers’ perspective, the impact of the international financial and sovereign debt crises on the VC…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine, from the venture capital (VC) managers’ perspective, the impact of the international financial and sovereign debt crises on the VC industry in Portugal, and the changes and adjustments VC managers were forced to adopt to their procedures and current practices to cope with these challenges.
Design/methodology/approach
A two-step research design was adopted to best capture the dynamics of the crisis. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews and content analysed. The initial set of interviews with ten VC managers was conducted in 2011, immediately before the country bailout; and the second set in 2013, when the full impact of the debt crisis was being felt.
Findings
The study shows that the crises had a significant impact on the VC industry producing a complex and dynamic environment with high levels of uncertainty. The VC managers’ contradictory perceptions reflect their own struggle to figure out the best way to deal with the pressures in such a volatile environment where new opportunities may also arise. In general, VC firms became more selective adopting a more prudential attitude and tighter control mechanisms.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the field by analysing, from the VC managers’ perspective, the cumulative impact of the international financial and sovereign debt crisis on a European VC market with specific features: small dimension of the industry operating in a bank-centred capital market and where family-owned SMEs predominate.
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Arpita Agnihotri and Saurabh Bhattacharya
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the adverse impact of a female executive’s fraudulent behaviour on other female employees working in the same organisation.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the adverse impact of a female executive’s fraudulent behaviour on other female employees working in the same organisation.
Design/methodology/approach
This developmental study uses a comprehensive literature review and a set of propositions to identify the consequences of a female’s fraudulent activity on other female employees working in the focal organisation. It develops a conceptual framework for the same. Propositions are further supported by five focus group interviews.
Findings
Leveraging stigma-by-association theory, the paper asserts that fraud committed by one female executive in an organisation enhances discriminatory practices against other female employees in the organisation. The level of adverse impact is contingent on the seniority of the female executive committing the fraud, severity of the fraud, gender of the other female employees’ managers and diversity in culture in the organisation.
Research limitations/implications
This paper extends the stigma-by-association theory. In its original spirit, the theory describes how individuals who keep company with stigmatised individuals are also stigmatised. This study asserts that for this effect to take place, especially under fraudulent conditions, mere group affiliation, such as working in the same organisation, may cause an adverse effect on other women.
Originality/value
The paper is based on a rich conceptual and theoretical discussion that identifies the key consequences of a female executive’s fraudulent activity in an organisation. The study also conceptually establishes the moderating relationship between a female executive’s fraudulent activity and several key organisation-level variables.
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Andreas Koutoupis, Michail Pazarskis and George Drogalas
The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of internal audit with respect to Auditing Corporate Governance Statements based on a practical approach. Moreover, it examines…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of internal audit with respect to Auditing Corporate Governance Statements based on a practical approach. Moreover, it examines the application of internal control best practices in the Athens publicly listed firms based on a series of related statements.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted all large and medium capitalization publicly listed companies via a research questionnaire which forms a basis of a descriptive research analysis. The methodology is based on the best worldwide acceptable practices as represented by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations internal control – integrated framework, as well as the relevant laws and regulations and best practices with respect to Corporate Governance Statements.
Findings
The research concludes that internal auditors limit their role in verifying compliance with the relevant laws and regulations rather than adopt a consulting role toward the improvement of the content and quality of Corporate Governance Statements information. Also, it contributes to the corporate governance research by verifying that the effectiveness of internal controls contributes to sound corporate governance practices.
Practical implications
Internal auditors depending on the organization they serve may adopt different roles regarding Corporate Governance Statements preparation, review and audit such as consultative which may add value to the quality of Corporate Governance Statements.
Originality/value
It is the first research regarding quality characteristics of the Corporate Governance Statements and the role of internal audit in Greece, and it provides the basis for further research among European Union countries.
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Going beyond the usual approach of measuring port performance – focusing on the efficiency of port operations – this paper aims to look into shipping lines and other port users’…
Abstract
Purpose
Going beyond the usual approach of measuring port performance – focusing on the efficiency of port operations – this paper aims to look into shipping lines and other port users’ perceptions on port performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper develops a framework measuring the perceptions of port users (i.e. shipping companies, shippers, etc.) on port performance. A typology of elements that shape port users’ perceptions has been developed with an eye on capturing the peculiarities of different port markets. Based on this typology, a tool to assess users’ perspectives, and subsequently evaluate, any given port has been developed. The tool provides port authorities the flexibility they need for customized approaches. The developed evaluation mechanism has been tested on a group of European seaports, and the results are presented by this study.
Findings
The framework and its pilot application unveil the key parameters that port users take into consideration when evaluating the effectiveness component of port performance. Moreover, the importance and evaluation ratings of specific performance parameters allow for a GAP analysis of the collected data.
Research limitations/implications
The paper advances scholarly and practical discussion on how of port users’ perceptions can be a valuable tool for port performance measurement.
Practical implications
The proposed tool can be a valuable add-on for port authorities to evaluate their performance from the port users’ point of view and take the necessary actions to improve it. Also, the tool can be used for the evaluation of a new process, infrastructure. The evaluation of port users’ perception of port performance can and must be part of a European ports observatory, as it is a set of indicators that clearly reflects the satisfaction of port users by engaging their view on port performance issues, instead of relying almost exclusively on port-generated data.
Originality/value
The paper develops a framework for measuring port user’s perception on port performance, which is flexible and can be applied in any port.