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Recent studies have documented the significant influence of investment bank relationships on the forecast accuracy of affiliated analysts. However, the literature primarily focuses on investment bank-firm relationships, such as whether the investment bank has underwriter or lending relationships with firms. Little attention has been paid to the impact of investment bank-state relationships. To fill this gap in the literature, this paper investigates whether investment bank-state relationships create an information advantage for affiliated analysts.

We empirically test the information advantage of state-affiliated analysts using a large sample of analyst forecasts from China spanning the period 2008 to 2020. Specifically, we investigate whether state-affiliated analysts issue more accurate and timely forecasts around macro events. To address endogeneity concerns, we examine instances where analysts move between state-affiliated and non-affiliated banks, as well as changes in the controlling structure of investment banks.

We find that state-affiliated analysts demonstrate greater accuracy in forecasts driven by macro events, indicating their information advantage. This effect is more pronounced under conditions of heightened economic policy uncertainty and closer ties between investment banks and the state. After transitioning to a non-state-affiliated investment bank, analysts no longer maintain the ability to make superior macro-event-driven forecasts. Conversely, when the investment bank's affiliation changes from non-state to state, financial analysts gain an information advantage following the establishment of new state affiliation. Additionally, state-affiliated analysts tend to issue more assertive forecasts in response to macro events, which are subsequently echoed by their peers. Furthermore, this information advantage is recognized by investors, enhancing stock price informativeness.

Firstly, we contribute to the literature on the economic implications of state ownership in financial intermediaries. Secondly, we enrich the existing literature on financial analysts by acknowledging the pivotal role of investment bank relationships in shaping analysts' behaviors. Lastly, unlike existing literature that treats forecasts driven by macroeconomic events and those influenced by firm-specific events as a homogeneous category, this study contributes to the literature by innovatively categorizing analyst forecasts into two distinct types.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the water quality parameters resulting on: First, the flow direction in biofilters (ascending or descending), second, constructed wetland (CW) with local plant species and third, the combined system for the removal of organic matter and nutrients pollutants from water in arid regions.

An integrated system is presented and tested in situ with a vertical up-flow and down-flow biofilters. Two configurations schemes are followed by a three separated horizontal subsurface CWs: two planted with Phragmites australis, Typha latifolia and the third unplanted. The methodology is based on a statistical analysis of the collected data.

The present experiment demonstrated that the wetlands planted with P. australis and T. latifolia showed the highest removal. Moreover, T. latifolia performed better than P. australis for most of the parameters, notably in the first system, whereas the wetland efficiency indicated that P. australis contributed greatly to the removal of TP in the first system and NO₃-N in the second system. In general, for the highest removal efficiencies of the combined biofilters and wetlands system, the present study demonstrated that the first system performed better than the second for all the parameters.

The originality of the research is that it compares in situ two biofilter systems: vertical up-flow and down-flow biofilters. To avoid the effects of domestic wastewater that is discharged directly without treatment in the Oued Righ channel or in the lake, this integrated system can be one of the alternatives for wastewater treatment, as it reveals the need to protect aquatic ecosystems in arid regions, and can decrease the risks to human health and the environment.

This study explored whether the critical incident management systems (CIMS) model can predict the EMS performance in the COVID-19 context. Past research has established the significance of early detection and response (ER) in the context of Ebola virus disease (EVD), prompting a question of whether the model can also be helpful in the COVID-19 context. Consequently, the authors assessed whether ER influences the impact of communication capacity (CC), reliable information channel (RC) and environment (EN) on COVID-19 EMS performance. Assessing these relationships will advance emerging infectious disease (EID) preparedness.

The authors employed standardized measurement instruments of the CIMS model (CC, ER, RC and EN) to predict the performance of COVID-19 EMS using structural equation modeling (SEM) in a study of 313 participants from frontline responders.

The results show that the relationship of ER and EN with COVID-19 EMS performance is positive, while that of EN on CC is negative. The relationship between EN and COVID-19 EMS performance was insignificant. Contrary to the hypothesis, CC was negatively significant to COVID-19 EMS performance due to poor communication capacities.

The authors acknowledge some limitations due to challenges faced in this study. First, Data collection was a significant limitation as these questionnaires were built and distributed in June 2020, but the response time was prolonged due to the recurring nature of the pandemic. The authors had wanted to implore the inputs of all stakeholders, and efforts were made to reach out to various Ministry of Health, the local CDC and related agencies in the region via repeated emails explaining the purpose of the study to no avail. The study finally used the frontline workers as the respondents. The authors used international students from various countries as the representatives to reach out to their countries' frontline workers. Second, since the study was only partially supported using the CIMS model, future studies may combine the CIMS model with other models or theories. Subsequent research reassesses this outcome in other contexts or regions. Consequently, further research can explore how CC can be improved with COVID-19 and another future EID in the region. This may improve the COVID-19 EMS performance, thereby expanding the lesson learned from the pandemic and sustaining public health EID response. Additionally, other authors may combine the CIMS model with other emergency management models or theories to establish a fully supported theoretical model in the context of COVID-19.

The findings have practical implications for incident managers, local CDCs, governments, international organizations and scholars. The outcome of the study might inform these stakeholders on future direction and contribution to EID preparedness. This study unfolds the impact of lessons learned in the region demonstrated by moderating early detection and responses with other constructs to achieve COVID-19 EMS performance. The findings reveal that countries that experienced the 2013–2016 Ebola outbreak, were not necessarily more prepared for an epidemic or pandemic, judging by the negative moderating impact of early detection and response. However, these experiences provide a foundation for the fight against COVID-19. There is a need for localized plans tailored to each country's situation, resources, culture and lifestyle. The localized plan will be to mitigate and prevent an unsustainable EID management system, post-epidemic fund withdrawals and governance. This plan might be more adaptable and sustainable for the local health system when international interventions are withdrawn after an epidemic. Public health EID plans must be adapted to each country's unique situation to ensure sustainability and constantly improve EID management of epidemics and pandemics in emergency response. The high to moderate importation risk in African countries shows Africa's largest window of vulnerability to be West Africa (Gilbert et al., 2020). Therefore, they should be in the spotlight for heightened assistance towards the preparedness and response for a future pandemic like COVID-19. The West African region has a low capacity to manage the health emergency to match the population capacities. The COVID-19 outbreak in West Africa undoubtedly inflicted many disruptions in most countries' economic, social and environmental circumstances. The region's unique challenges observed in this study with CC and reliable information channels as being negatively significant highlight the poor maintenance culture and weak institutions due to brain drain and inadequate training and monitoring. This outcome practically informs West African stakeholders and governments on aspects to indulge when trying to improve emergency preparedness as the outcomes from other regions might not be applicable.

This study explored the relevance of the CIMS model in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, revealing different patterns of influence on COVID-19 EMS performance. In contrast to the extant literature on EVD, the authors found the moderating effects of ER in the COVID-19 context. Thus, the authors contribute to the COVID-19 EMS performance domain by developing a context-driven EMS model. The authors discuss the theoretical and practical implications.

This study aims to assess the influence of material internal control weaknesses (ICWs) on investment in intangible assets, capital structure and commercial risk of organizations. Also, it analyses the impact of investment in intangible assets on the presence of material ICWs. This paper expects that ICWs and investment in intangible assets are interactively incorporated.

The statistical population of this study includes listed firms on the Tehran Stock Exchange during 2012-2017, selected using the systematic elimination method. A total of 588 firms is selected as the final sample of the study. Four hypotheses are developed to meet the study’s objectives and data analysis is carried out using the panel data method in Stata Software.

Results show that material ICWs have a positive and significant impact on investment in intangible assets and financial leverage. Moreover, this study finds that investment in intangible assets deteriorates the ICWs’ degree. However, the findings show no significant relationship between ICWs and commercial risks of companies.

The current study fills the gap in the literature science; there is no evidence on the subject of the study.

This study aims to investigate the current practices being implemented against the dissemination of fake online news, identify the relationship of new media literacy (NML) with fake news epidemic control and find out the challenges in identifying valid sources of information.

To accomplish constructed objectives of this study, a systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted. The authors carried out the “Preferred Reporting Items for the Systematic Review and Meta-analysis” guidelines as a research methodology. The data were retrieved from ten world’s leading digital databases and online tools. A total of 25 key studies published in impact factor (IF) journals were included for systematic review vis-à-vis standard approaches.

This study revealed trending practices to control fake news consisted of critical information literacy, civic education, new thinking patterns, fact-checkers, automatic fake news detection tools, employment of ethical norms and deep learning via neural networks. Results of the synthesized studies revealed that media literacy, web literacy, digital literation, social media literacy skills and NML assisted acted as frontline soldiers in combating the fake news war. The findings of this research also exhibited different challenges to control fake news perils.

This study provides pertinent theoretical contributions in the body of existing knowledge through the addition of valuable literature by conducting in-depth systematic review of 25 IF articles on a need-based topic.

This scholarly contribution is fruitful and practically productive for the policymakers belonging to different spectrums to effectively control web-based fake news epidemic.

This intellectual piece is a benchmark to address fake news calamities to save the social system and to educate citizens from harms of false online stories on social networking websites.

This study vivifies new vistas via a reinvigorated outlook to address fake news perils embedded in dynamic, rigorous and heuristic strategies for redefining a predetermined set of social values.