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The purpose of this paper is to describe how non-fungible tokens (NFTs) can be used in the commission of financial crime, including money laundering and crypto-fraud schemes, using the framework of the Space Transition Theory.

A literature review relating the Space Transition Theory to crime vulnerabilities related to NFTs is conducted and practical examples illustrating NFT schemes are provided.

The authors find that the Space Transition Theory explains the evolution of financial crimes into the NFT space. The transformation of the art industry from the physical to the virtual space through NFTs underlies the criminal activity surrounding them. NFTs enable crime because of the flexibility, dissociative anonymity, lack of deterrence and anonymity.

Criminals can easily take advantage of the users’ limited knowledge of blockchain to defraud them of their money or tokens. These risks accentuate the need to adopt appropriate measures to augment the accountability of NFT transactions. Until such interventions are implemented, the NFT market remains a highly viable space for the perpetration of financial crimes.

The dynamic nature of the cyberspace and fast-past underlying technology provide a greater chance to escape than crimes committed in the physical space. The state of security on NFT platforms has elicited concerns from diverse quotas. NFTs pose significant money laundering risks because of the lack of appropriate regulatory mechanisms, generating a need for enhanced oversight and enforcement of sectors of the economy in physical space vulnerable to abuse in the NFT space, including entities such as art galleries, museums, sports teams and luxury brands.

The Space Transition Theory is also supported in that norms and values regarding ethics and criminal actions in the physical space do not transfer to cyber space.

The novelty aspect of this research is in applying the Space Transition Theory to financial crime schemes based on NFTs.

The purpose of this research is to assess the removal of oil spills from the seawater surface as well as the antibacterial activity of ZnFe₂O₄-cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB, cationic surfactant) magnetic nanoparticles (ZFO-CTAB MNPs).

A CTAB-assisted sol–gel method was used to synthesize ZFO-CTAB MNPs. X-ray powder diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were used for ZFO-CTAB MNPs characterization. Also, the magnetic force and apparent density of ZFO-CTAB MNPs were determined. The oil spill cleanup was investigated by using the gravimetric oil removal (GOR) technique, which used ZFO-CTAB MNPs as oil absorbent material and four oil samples (crude, diesel, gasoline and used oil) as oil spill models. The antibacterial activity of ZFO-CTAB MNPs against Gram-negative bacteria (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhi) was investigated by using the optical density method.

The results revealed that, when the amount of ZFO-CTAB was 0.01 g, gasoline oil had the highest GOR (51.80 ± 0.88 g/g) and crude oil had the lowest (11.29 ± 0.82 g/g). Furthermore, for Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, ZFO-CTAB MNPs inhibited bacterial growth with a higher percentage (94.24%–95.63%).

The applications of ZFO-CTAB MNPs in the cleanup of oil spills from aqueous solutions, as well as their antibacterial activity. The results showed that ZFO-CTAB MNPs are a promising material for removing oil spills from bodies of water as well as an antibacterial agent against Gram-negative bacterial strains.

The purpose of this paper is to examine parental career-related behavior (PCB) in relation to the vocational intentions of female nationals enrolled at higher education institutions in the United Arab Emirates.

A conceptual framework was constructed to examine the interplay between the PCB factors of support, interference and lack of engagement, against context-relevant dimensions of gendered sociocultural barriers, public sector preferences and the likelihood itself of labor market entry. Survey data from face-to-face encounters (n=335) was collected.

Parental support was found to significantly reduce the perceived sociocultural barriers to workforce participation. Parental interference amplified these barriers and also increased public sector preferences. Those with educated fathers were more likely to seek labor market entry and consider atypical career paths, while those with a parent working in the private sector were more willing to consider this sector.

One limitation was a sample comprising only female students, nonetheless it implies PCB has an impact on “national” female labor force participation (FLFP). Therefore, seeking to engage parents as more active stakeholders in vocationally related HEI interventions would benefit from greater policy attention.

This paper is the first to consider parental influence on FLFP using the PCB construct. Its value is in the framework model presented and its contribution to the discourse on the Arabian Gulf’s labor market dynamics.

Poor quality of design documents and Design Deficiencies (DDs) are critical factors that can potentially cause time and cost overrun and lead to project failure. Despite the importance of this issue, few studies have been conducted to explore the underlying relations among the causes and effects of DDs, and it is not clear how they exert influence on each other. However, it is imperative to have a clear understanding of their interrelationships so as to devise intervention strategies. The purpose of this study is, therefore, to explore these causes and effects.

To this aim, a qualitative system dynamics model was provided to visualize how various factors interact with one another. The model was developed and validated by drawing on the expertise of industry-related experts. The key causes and effects of the DDs were identified through the investigation of the model.

It was concluded that design management of project and the composition of design teams are critical. The obtained results also showed that more attention should be paid to the enhancement of knowledge circulation and communication within design firms and increasing the awareness of managers and owners from the technical consequences of their managerial decisions.

It is worth mentioning that the design process could be deeply affected by the quality, frequency and strength of relationships among the project’s parties. Early involvement of contractors, for example, can significantly contribute to enhancing design quality. This study investigates factors’ interactions in projects delivered using the traditional design-bid-build method. As relationships between the project’s parties could be different in various project delivery methods, further research is indeed needed to assess factors’ interactions in projects delivered using other methods.

It is believed that the proposed model by providing a better insight into the connections of causes and effects could aid project managers of different parties with planning the strategies to reduce DDs and mitigate their effects.

The study evaluates whether an application of Ind-AS that converged with IFRS in India has enhanced financial reporting quality (FRQ) and how that is reflected in financial performance (FP).

Design/methodology/approach: The study uses discretionary accruals (DACC) to measure FRQ. In addition, it uses ordinary least square (OLS) regression to examine the association between Corporate Governance attributes, FRQ, and financial performance for a sample of 24 textile companies from 2010 to 2021.

The results indicate that adopting IFRS has a role in monitoring CG attributes to enhance FRQ; this means the financial reporting qualit improves somewhat with some CG attributes under Ind-AS. In addition, the results demonstrate that financial reporting quality positively influences FP.

There are significant effects on authorities and decision-makers. The findings from this research can benefit lawmakers by providing Ind-AS policy enforcement with more consideration. The results are also helpful for policymakers who want to improve CG and need proof of the significance of high FRQ in this respect.

Given the dearth of research on FRQ in India, the study extends prior literature on FRQ by examining the quality of financial reporting according to the transformation to IFRS in Indian textile firms. The theoretical contribution of the current study is the testing of agency theory towards practices of corporate governance mechanisms on FRQ and FP in the context of the textile sector.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the latent interrelationships of causes and effects of design deficiencies (DDs) and to identify the most crucial ones by considering the interactions among them.

First, through a comprehensive literature review, the most critical causes of DDs were identified. The review eventuated in a list of 22 causes and 12 effects, which were categorized into six groups. Second, through the rules of system dynamics and the interactions between the causes and effects were modeled and illustrated using causal loop diagrams (CLDs). With the aid of semi-structured interviews with 20 competent experts, the resultant CLDs were also validated. Third, the opinions of 54 experts, who were chosen from the Iranian community of clients and consultants, were solicited concerning the degree of influence which each factor (causes or effects) exerts on others. Finally, the social network analysis (SNA) approach was deployed to analyze and prioritize factors based on the gathered data from experts.

SNA results indicated that factors such as “design firms' staff rework” and “design firms' loss of reputation” are the most central factors affecting DDs. The model results also identified that factors such as “schedule variance”, “workload” and “lack of quality control and supervision during the design phase” have the highest overall impact on DDs. In the end, some recommendations to address major factors and links were also put forward. Overall, more communications between the pair of stakeholder groups and continuous learning from project experiences are believed to be the main strategies.

It is believed that this study has provided a comprehensive understanding of causal mechanisms among factors, which can assist project managers of different parties (clients, contractors and consulting firms) in taking more effective actions to ameliorate the quality of design documents.

This appreciative inquiry study frames and reflects upon other ways of knowing: beliefs, values, and experiences of identity, diversity, and gender as lived in the Arab world and specifically in the United Arab Emirates. It emphasizes the paradigms informing ways of leading for western expatriate females and Middle East gulf region national females in leadership positions. Western ideology related to diversity, gender, and leadership are all reflected in ways of leading in the global society that is the United Arab Emirates but in some ways are contrary to Islamic notions of women as leaders in the Gulf region causing educational leadership female expatriates and nationals to shift paradigms and revisit their identity, gender, feminist beliefs, and ways of knowing leadership working in a global society.

This case highlights a brave Syrian man’s act toward social responsibility. Mohammad Alaa Aljaleel, an ambulance driver established an animal sanctuary to save and take care of the animals who were victim of the Civil War in Aleppo, Syria. Instead of finding a safer place for himself, he preferred to take care of the animals who were left behind by their owners. But it was not an easy task for him to handle alone and thus he sought help and donation from others. He and his team not only created the animal sanctuary, but also established orphanage and children playground with the money they received. During this process, Alaa faced lots of challenges, but he did not give up his duty toward animals and the other needy. This case teaches that we have responsibility toward the nature and animals too.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gained tremendous importance after several corporate scandals, financial crises and the rise of the hyper-competitive world. Firms must address multiple stakeholders’ interests to increase firm value. This study aims to investigate the effect of CSR on firm value. This study also examines the mediating role of enterprise risk management (ERM) and the moderating influence of corporate governance (CG) in this CSR-firm value relationship.

The sample of the study comprises 119 Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) listed firms and the study covers the period from 2010 to 2021. The corporate social responsibility performance has been quantified across five dimensions. These aspects are product, environment, employee relations, diversity and community. Four proxies i.e. strategy, operation, reporting and compliance, have been used to measure ERM. The governance quality of the sample companies was evaluated using the governance index, which included 29 governance provisions. The authors used the dynamic panel data technique (system-GMM) is used to achieve the objectives of the study. Furthermore, a firm’s engagement in CSR activities can also be measured through a multinational financial approach to check the robustness of the result.

Based on the regression analysis, the authors discovered that CSR was positively connected with firm value, validating the stakeholder view of CSR. Furthermore, following Baron and Kenny’s (1986) mediation technique, the findings confirm that ERM mediates this association. These results are robust by using the bootstrapping tests by Preacher and Hayes (2004). Furthermore, the result shows that corporate governance (CG) is positively connected with firm performance, and this relationship is strengthened in the presence of an effective governance system in the organization.

This study provides useful insights to regulators, investors and policymakers to consider CSR as a value-enhancing factor and encourage the development of enterprise risk management and compliance with CG mechanisms to improve firm value.

The presented analysis strengthens the existing CSR–firm value relationship by analyzing the mediating and moderating roles of ERM and CG, which have not yet been tested, particularly in the context of Pakistan.

This study focuses on a specific method of meat production that involves carcass purchase and meat production by packing facilities with a novel two-stage model that simultaneously considers location-routing and inventory-production operating decisions. The considered problem aims to reduce variable and fixed transportation and production costs, inventory holding cost and the cost of opening cold storage facilities.

The proposed model encompasses a two-stage model consisting of a single-echelon and a three-echelon many-to-many network with deterministic demand. The proposed model is a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model which was tested with the general algebraic modelling system (GAMS) software for a real-world case study in Iran. A sensitivity analysis was performed to examine the effect of retailers' holding capacity and supply capacity at carcass suppliers.

In this research, the number of products transferred at each level, the number of products held, the quantity of red meat produced, the required cold storage facilities and the required vehicles were optimally specified. The outcomes indicated a two percent (2%) decrease in cost per kg of red meat. Eventually, the outcomes of the first and second sensitivity analysis indicated that reduced retailers' holding capacity and supply capacity at carcass suppliers leads to higher total costs.

This research proposes a novel multi-period location-inventory-routing problem for the red meat supply chain in an emerging economy with a heterogeneous vehicle fleet and logistics decisions. The proposed model is presented in two stages and four-echelon including carcass suppliers, packing facilities, cold storage facilities and retailers.