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This chapter investigates the short-run and long-run economic implications of the shareholder activism in family-controlled firms in Malaysia.

In order to investigate the impact of MSWG activism on RPT, we collected related party transactions data (sales and purchases) and inter-segment sales from the annual reports of the firms. We use standard event study methodology to calculate abnormal returns for the sample and control firms.

We do not find significant effect on the share performance in the short-run after MSWG engagement with the targeted firms. However in the long-run, our results show significant improvement in the MSWG targeted family-controlled firms’ performance compared to non-targeted family firms. We also examine the changes in the level of related party transactions. We do not find significant changes in the level of such sales and purchase transactions except for inter-segment sales.

We argue that market is not strong form efficient because market did not react to the MSWG engagement with the management of these companies. We propose that future research should focus on the investors perception of the MSWG involvement so that a clear picture of its significance can be observable to other firms in the market.

Even though the activism practices are still less aggressive in Malaysia than those found in the developed countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States, however our results show that shareholder activism led by MSWG have impact on the family-owned firms performance in the long-run.

We argue that it is the first study to examine MSWG engagements with the family-controlled firms in Malaysia.

While the relevance and rationale of strategic communication in organized religion are prevalent in academic and professional literature, there exists a dearth of both theoretical concepts and empirical knowledge, especially from a European perspective. Therefore, this chapter examines how strategic communication can be modelled in organized religion with its specific characteristics and logics by building a framework for strategic communication in this field of research. The framework questions perspectives of strategic communication and communication management that only concentrate on entities like famous persons, groups, movements or organizations and less on belief systems, organized and less organized entities interacting with each other. Religious organizations follow other rationalities like companies or non-profit organizations. Therefore, theories of corporate communication or public relations do not fit within the realm of organized religion, whose mission goes far beyond the organization. Taking into account religious institutions in strategic communication, this chapter delivers new theoretical insights by demonstrating how strategic communication can contribute to the specific purposes of organized religion. Furthermore, the study indicates the specific challenges communication professionals working in the area of religion are confronted with. Finally, it offers practical solutions for the specific field of organized religion by evolving specific target horizons of organized religion. Activating and developing the communication function of more or less independent bodies are main tasks for communication professionals working in organized religion and other meta-organizations.

We study institutional investors’ influence on the use of related party transactions (RPTs) in China. We test the significance of potential factors in the cross-sectional regression analysis of the amount of RPTs reported by Chinese listed companies. We also analyze intraday trading activities and stock prices in days around public announcements of RPTs. Our findings suggest that institutional investors do not have a significant influence on Chinese firms’ usage of RPTs but they react to RPT announcements through buying or selling shares.

Outlines some of the main issues in declining membership facing the Anglican Church in Wales including doctrine, clergy, laity, evangelism and variety in worship. Considers the growth of charismatic churches and the success of those with stricter codes. Concludes that many look to the church for occasional offices such as birth, marriage and death but little else. Advocates an element of strictness in order that the individual can see a difference in belonging. Points to a growth in affluence bringing tolerance and respectability and a fall in the birth rate of potential adherents.

A corporate takeover (with major stake in equity) gives the acquirer the right to appoint majority of directors in the target’s board to control its management and policy decisions. When such acquisition is unsolicited and unwelcome, it becomes a “hostile takeover.” In such cases, the acquirer is said to be a “raider” and the raider’s management team may act under the influence of “hubris” implying that they seek to acquire the target for their own personal motives ignoring pure economic gains for the owners of both the companies. The hostile bidder makes all possible efforts to justify the takeover by paying handsome premium over the target’s fairly valued share price. In a hostile takeover, the target management or target promoters resist and fight tooth and nail against the raider to convey to the world that the bidder’s acts are not in the best interest of all their stakeholders. Any unsolicited and hostile takeover offer is generally viewed as oppression, domination or coercion by the bidding company against the target and its management. In a hostile bid, the existing target management always believes that whatever they do is in best interest of everyone. They feel complacent and assume that their standards of corporate governance are of highest order. Therefore, they are unwilling to succumb to the aggression and hostility of another corporate entity for takeover. The “so-called” victimized target resorts to all means to gain sympathy from peers, press, common shareholders, employees and general public. In today’s regulated market for corporate control, an intelligent hostile bidder would probably not acquire a business unless it has good strategic or financial reasons to do so. Hence, “stewardship” on the part of bidder’s management is very important in case of any hostile takeover. This chapter derives motivation from a three-and-half-decade-old abortive hostile takeover bid in India by Caparo Group of the UK and also the recently completed hostile takeover in India of a famous mid-sized information technology company, Mindtree by Larsen & Toubro, a major conglomerate. This research aims at developing a distinctive model to demonstrate that unsolicited hostile takeover may not be a good mechanism for a successful business combination.

A large and growing literature examines the explicit social responsibility practices of companies. Yet corporations’ greatest consequences for social welfare arguably occur through indirect processes that shape the social fabric that sustains generosity and mutual support within communities. Based on this logic, we theorize and test a model that suggests two pathways by which large corporations affect community philanthropy: (1) through direct engagement in community philanthropy and (2) by indirectly influencing the efficacy of community social capital, defined as the relationships among community members that facilitate social support and maintenance of social welfare. Our analysis of United Way contributions in 136 US cities over the 46 years from 1952 to 1997 supports our model. We find that the presence of corporations weakens the contributions of both elite and working-class social capital on community philanthropy. Our findings thus contribute to a novel view of corporate social responsibility based on how corporations influence the social capital of the communities in which they are embedded.

It is consensus among Muslim social scientists that religion as an informal institution plays a very important role in building the socio-economic structure of an Islamic state. The transmission of religiosity across generations has important economic implications for a family in particular and a society in general. The Tawhidi methodology is applied for a theoretical model and for the development of the model. The purpose of this study is to determine the transmission of religious capital in an Islamic society.

This study by using an index of religiosity for both parents and their offspring has explored the causal relationship between the religiosity across generations. By using three-tier analytical strategies, i.e. zero-order regression, model with control variables and model with mediating variables, this study has regressed two models for each control and mediating variable.

The findings for the core variable in all models confirmed the hypothesis of the study that parental religious traits are important determinants of the religiosity of their offspring. For the model of control variables, the variables of area, gender and age of the respondent along with the parental religious index are found to be significant with appropriate signs. For the model with mediating variables, only the variable of parental sharing of religious values along with the parental religious index are found to impact the religiosity of the offspring. Therefore, the nutshell of the findings is that the religious orientation of an offspring is highly influenced by the religious denominations of the parents. The formation of the religious capital is a continuous process and the ultimate result of divine knowledge.

Data at the national level are not collected for this purpose by governmental organizations in a country like Pakistan because of shortage of funds. Therefore, data are collected by the authors.

This study will provide guidance to policy-makers for the formulation of their policies.

Intergenerational transmission of religious capital plays a very important role in the moral development of an ideal society.

This is an original effort and is conducted for the first time in Pakistan.

This study aims to analyze the effects of religion on gender equality at the national level.

The study distinguishes between the concepts of religiosity and religious affiliation and introduces a measure of religious diversity. The study defines religiosity and gender equality as multidimensional concepts and relies on a wide range of secondary data from credible sources such as the World Value Survey, the United Nations, Gender Gap Report and the World Economic Forum to analyze the effect of religious factors on gender equality in more than 70 countries.

The analyses show that after controlling for the effects of socio-economic development, religiosity tends to impede gender equality. It is found that Muslim and Hinduism affiliations are negatively and Protestant affiliation is positively associated with gender equality. Furthermore, Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox affiliations and religious diversity do not significantly affect gender equality.

At the theoretical level, this study distinguishes between religious affiliations and religiosity and relies on the modernization theory to offer valuable insights into the relationship between religion and gender equality. This study's findings could serve managers and policymakers in dealing with gender disparities in different spheres of social life at the practical level.

In recent years, there has been an expanding literature on the socio‐economic determinants of religiosity. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this stream of the literature by studying the impact of life expectancy on religiosity through a theoretical decision‐making framework, and by separately examining the decision of young and old individuals with respect to religious participation.

The paper analyses religiosity through a cost‐benefit framework, where decisions at each point in time depend on expected social and spiritual benefits attached to religious adherence (both contemporaneously, as well as in the afterlife), the probability of entering heaven in the afterlife, as well as the costs of formal religion in terms of time allocated to religious activities. It provides the theoretical underpinnings for the negative correlation between life expectancy and religious attendance previously observed in empirical analysis.

The analysis reveals how increases in life expectancy encourage postponement of religious involvement, particularly in religion doctrines that do not necessarily link salvation (or afterlife benefits more broadly) to the timing of religiosity. This demonstrates that religious establishments should anticipate to attract older members, particularly in countries which have high life expectancy or expect significant increases in life expectancy, although current socio‐economic benefits can counterbalance the negative impact of life expectancy on religiosity and hence encourage religious involvement.

The paper contributes to the literature on the economics of religion by exploring the mediating role of life expectancy in explaining cross‐country differences in religious expression, a channel that has so far received little attention in the literature. Its innovation lies in distinguishing decision making over different time intervals and evaluating the role of benefits and costs through the life cycle and in the afterlife.