The purpose of this paper is to offer a viewpoint on the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on people’s engagement with an online alcohol service in the UK. This paper…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to offer a viewpoint on the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on people’s engagement with an online alcohol service in the UK. This paper examines whether self-reported mental health concerns increased during the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic times.
Design/methodology/approach
A comparison was made between service data captured in one contract area – West Sussex, England – pre-pandemic (April 2019 to March 2020) and during pandemic (April 2020 to March 2021).
Findings
Self-reported mental health treatment needs increased during the pandemic period (71.2% of presentations compared to 50% pre-pandemic) via the online coaching service. Male referrals increased by 74% during the pandemic period compared to the previous year. Female referrals decreased by 4% in the same time period. Feelings of shame and guilt as well as loss of a confidential space to engage in online interventions were common concerns reported by service users.
Research limitations/implications
Research limitations include the relatively small sample size, the sample comprised of self-referred treatment seeking clients, and there was no control group. All data collected is self-report therefore subjective and not necessarily meeting diagnostic criteria.
Practical implications
Of note was the impact of the pandemic on women and their reduced access to the online service during the pandemic. Commissioners and services must adapt their service design and delivery alongside the new “normal” way of living and working. Routine screening of mental health and alcohol use are recommended.
Originality/value
This paper offers insight from an established online/digital service and the impact of the pandemic on people’s engagement with the service.
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Zakaria Boulanouar, Stuart Locke and Mark Holmes
The purpose of this paper is to answer the increasing calls to analyse how lending relationship between banks and their small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) work. More…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to answer the increasing calls to analyse how lending relationship between banks and their small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) work. More precisely, the main aim is to investigate the lending approach(es) and criteria used by banks to assess loan applications from their relationship-managed (RM) SMEs’ clients. Other objectives include investigating the level of congruence in terms of lending practices and processes among the sample banks in New Zealand (NZ) and to discern how the assessment of the SME owner/manager is done within the relationship-banking framework.
Design/methodology/approach
The research objectives concern investigating processes and not variances. Thus, a qualitative research approach was used. Extensive data was collected via interviews across representative banks in NZ and thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.
Findings
The findings include a detailed analysis of how relationship banking actually works; how in NZ, the main bank brands use three criteria of lending (financials, security and character) as a framework of assessing loan applications from RM-clients – which is different from the character, capital, capacity, conditions, and collateral (5Cs) that are widely used and discussed as the framework of lending; and an elucidation as to why and how character assessment is different from the other criteria of lending.
Originality/value
To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the mechanisms and processes that banks use to deal with their RM-SMEs, show the existence of a different framework of lending other than the 5Cs and attempt an explanation as to why character evaluation is different from that of the other criteria of lending.
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Van Ha, Mark J. Holmes and Gazi Hassan
This study focuses on the linkages between foreign direct investment and the research and development (R&D) and innovation activity of domestic enterprises in Vietnam.
Abstract
Purpose
This study focuses on the linkages between foreign direct investment and the research and development (R&D) and innovation activity of domestic enterprises in Vietnam.
Design/methodology/approach
The Heckman selection model approach is applied to a panel dataset of nearly 7,000 Vietnamese firms for the 2011–2015 study period to investigate the impact of foreign presence on the R&D of local firms through horizontal and vertical linkages. Probit model estimation is employed to examine how foreign investment influences the innovation activity of local companies.
Findings
While there are a small number of firms carrying out R&D activities in Vietnam, foreign or joint domestic–foreign venture firms are less inclined than domestic firms to undertake R&D. Domestic factors that include capital, labor quality, location and export status of firm have a significant effect on the decision of domestic firms to participate in R&D activity. Only forward linkages and the gross firm output are found to have an impact on the R&D intensity of domestic enterprises, while other factors appear to have no significant influence on how much firms spend on R&D activities.
Practical implications
In order to promote the R&D activity of domestic firms, policy should focus on (1) the backward linkages between local firms in downstream sectors with their foreign suppliers in upstream sectors, and (2) the internal factors such as labor, capital or location that affect the decisions made by domestic firms.
Originality/value
Given that foreign investment may affect R&D and innovation activity of local firms in host countries, the impact is relatively unexplored for many emerging economies and not so in the case of Vietnam. The availability of a unique survey on Vietnamese firm technology and competitiveness provides the opportunity to address this gap in the literature.
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Jaigris Hodson, Samantha Jackson, Wendy Cukier and Mark Holmes
The purpose of this paper is to engage the ecological model as a conceptual tool to examine the ethics of conducting research on LGBTQ+ individuals in the workplace. In…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to engage the ecological model as a conceptual tool to examine the ethics of conducting research on LGBTQ+ individuals in the workplace. In particular, it focuses on outness and the act of outing in research.
Design/methodology/approach
Established methodologies for studying LGBTQ+ persons in the workplace are examined using a critical outness lens. The ecological model is used to identify a critical path forward for researchers working with LGBTQ+ participants and to improve LGBTQ+ workplace experiences more broadly.
Findings
The tension between the ethics of coming out of the closet and the ethics of outing someone for the greater good is problematized. It suggests that organizational and diversity scholars approach research methods with an understanding of the role played by the body and sexuality in LGBTQ+ workplace research.
Practical implications
Researchers should recognize that workers may have varying degrees of outness within their organization and/or across their private and public lives.
Originality/value
Research on LGBTQ+ persons in the workplace is limited, and research examining the ethics of relevant methods is scarcer still. This paper begins a discussion on how researchers can trouble current hegemonic approaches to LGBTQ+-centered research in organizations.
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Harold Glenn A. Valera, Mark J. Holmes and Gazi M. Hassan
The purpose of this paper is to consider whether or not the introduction of inflation targeting (IT) impacts on the mean-reversion properties of inflation and output growth.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to consider whether or not the introduction of inflation targeting (IT) impacts on the mean-reversion properties of inflation and output growth.
Design/methodology/approach
Focusing on eight Asian countries of which four are inflation-targeters, the authors employ a two-state Markov-switching model which characterizes the behavior of inflation and output growth as regime-dependent based on periods of stationarity or non-stationarity.
Findings
In contrast to a literature that offers mixed findings, the authors find the presence of stationary inflation and output growth in one regime for all IT countries, except for South Korea which is characterized by stationary output growth in both regimes. In the cases of South Korea and Thailand, IT reduces the probability of inflation remaining in a non-stationary regime. IT increases the probability of South Korea remaining in a regime of low persistence output growth. While IT is important in understanding behavior, so are other considerations such as exchange rate volatility, as well as the Asian and global financial crises.
Originality/value
In contrast to other unit root tests of inflation and output growth, a novelty of the approach is that the authors obtain new insights in terms of two concepts of stationarity that allow for inflation and output growth to switch between stationary and non-stationary regimes (partial stationarity), or between stationary regimes of differing degrees of persistence (varied stationarity).
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Mark J. Holmes and Jesús Otero
The purpose of this paper is to assess the informational efficiency of Arabica (other milds) and Robusta coffee futures markets in terms of predicting future coffee spot prices.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the informational efficiency of Arabica (other milds) and Robusta coffee futures markets in terms of predicting future coffee spot prices.
Design/methodology/approach
Futures market efficiency is associated with the existence of a long-run equilibrium relationship between spot and future prices such that coffee futures prices are unbiased predictors of future spot prices. This study applies unit root testing to daily data for futures-spot price differentials. A range of maturities for futures contracts are considered, and the study also uses a recursive approach to consider time variation in futures market efficiency.
Findings
The other milds and Robusta futures prices tend to be unbiased predictors for their own respective spot prices. The paper further finds that other milds and Robusta futures prices are unbiased predictors of the respective Robusta and other milds spot prices. Recursive estimation suggests that the futures market efficiency associated with these cross cases has increased, though with no clear link to the implementation of the 2007 International Coffee Agreement.
Originality/value
The paper draws new insights into futures market efficiency by examining the two key types of coffee and analyses the potential interactions between them. Hitherto, no attention has been paid to futures contracts of the Robusta variety. The employment of unit root testing of spot futures coffee price differentials can be viewed as more stringent than an approach based on non-cointegration testing.
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Van T.C. Ha, Mark J. Holmes and Trang M. Le
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between export performance and firm size.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between export performance and firm size.
Design/methodology/approach
Analysing a large sample of firms in the Vietnamese manufacturing sector, the authors employ a quantile regression approach to asses whether or not the relationship between exporting and firm size is dependent upon the extent of exporting that firms already undertake.
Findings
The authors find that increased firm size leads to higher export volumes. However, in sharp contrast to literature that largely focuses on considering a linear relationship between these two variables, the authors further find that the positive relationship becomes weaker as the extent of exporting activity increases.
Originality/value
In contrast to the earlier literature, a key novelty of the approach is that the authors obtain new insights in terms of establishing a nonlinear relationship between firm size and export performance in the case of Vietnamese manufacturing.
Tests for long‐run macroeconomic convergence among European Union (EU) countries according to the various exchange rate regimes that have prevailed over the last 40 years…
Abstract
Tests for long‐run macroeconomic convergence among European Union (EU) countries according to the various exchange rate regimes that have prevailed over the last 40 years. Applying a recently developed test to the monthly index of industrial production data, output convergence is confirmed or rejected depending on whether or not the first largest principal component based on benchmark deviations with respect to Germany is stationary or not. It is argued that this methodology has key advantages over existing cointegrating and common trends procedures. For most EU countries, there is evidence of increased macroeconomic convergence during the 1990s, where evidence is particularly strong for Belgium, France and The Netherlands. The evidence also indicates that the Snake era of the 1970s was more conducive towards convergence than the initial exchange rate mechanism period of 1979‐1992. Firm evidence of convergence is lacking for Austria, Finland and Sweden, who joined the EU in 1995, and for a sample of non‐EU countries.
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Julie A. Kmec, Lindsey T. O’Connor and Shekinah Hoffman
Building on work that explores the relationship between individual beliefs and ability to recognize discrimination (e.g., Kaiser and Major, 2006), we examine how an adherence to…
Abstract
Building on work that explores the relationship between individual beliefs and ability to recognize discrimination (e.g., Kaiser and Major, 2006), we examine how an adherence to beliefs about gender essentialism, gender egalitarianism, and meritocracy shape one’s interpretation of an illegal act of sexual harassment involving a male supervisor and female subordinate. We also consider whether the role of the gendered culture of engineering (Faulkner, 2009) matters for this relationship. Specifically, we conducted an online survey-experiment asking individuals to report their beliefs about gender and meritocracy and subsequently to evaluate a fictitious but illegal act of sexual harassment in one of two university research settings: an engineering department, a male-dominated setting whose culture is documented as being unwelcoming to women (Hatmaker, 2013; Seron, Silbey, Cech, and Rubineau, 2018), and an ambiguous research setting. We find evidence that the stronger one’s adherence to gender egalitarian beliefs, the greater one’s ability to detect inappropriate behavior and sexual harassment while gender essentialist beliefs play no role in their detection. The stronger one’s adherence to merit beliefs, the less likely they are to view an illegal interaction as either inappropriate or as sexual harassment. We account for respondent knowledge of sexual harassment and their socio-demographic characteristics, finding that the former is more often associated with the detection of inappropriate behavior and sexual harassment at work. We close with a discussion of the transferability of results and policy implications of our findings.