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A “state-driven” approach suggests that colonists use census categories to rule. However, a “society-driven” approach suggests that this state-driven perspective confers too much power upon states. A third approach views census-taking and official categorization as a product of state–society interaction that depends upon: (a) the population's lay categories, (b) information intellectuals' ability to take up and transform these lay categories, and (c) the balance of power between social and state actors. We evaluate the above positions by analyzing official records, key texts, travelogues, and statistical memoirs from three key periods in India: Indus Valley civilization through classical Gupta rule (ca. 3300 BCE–700 CE), the “medieval” period (ca. 700–1700 CE), and East India Company (EIC) rule (1757–1857 CE), using historical narrative. We show that information gathering early in the first period was society driven; however, over time, a strong interactive pattern emerged. Scribes (information intellectuals) increased their social status and power (thus, shifting the balance of power) by drawing on caste categories (lay categories) and incorporating them into official information gathering. This intensification of interactive information gathering allowed the Mughals, the EIC, and finally British direct rule officials to collect large quantities of information. Our evidence thus suggests that the intensification of state–society interactions over time laid the groundwork for the success of the direct rule British censuses. It also suggests that any transformative effect of these censuses lay in this interactive pattern, not in the strength of the British colonial state.

The success of online health communities (OHCs) depends on maintaining long-term relationships with physicians and preventing churn. Even so, the reasons for physician churn are poorly understood. In this study, an empirical model was proposed from a social influence perspective to explore the effects of online social influence and offline social influence on physician churn, as well as the moderating effect of their online returns.

The empirical data of 4,145 physicians from a Chinese OHC, and probit regression models were employed to verify the proposed theoretical model.

The results suggest that physicians' churn intention is influenced by online and offline social influences, and the offline social influence is more powerful. Physicians' reputational and economic returns could weaken the effect of online social influence on churn intention. However, physicians' economic returns could strengthen the effect of offline social influence on churn intention.

This research study is the first attempt to explore physician churn and divides the social influence into online and offline social influences according to the source of social relationship. The findings contribute to the literature on e-Health, user churn and social influence and provide management implications for OHC managers.

We adopt an information risk view and argue that higher levels of pledge risk incurred by insiders incentivize opportunistic financial disclosure and impair the quality of information available to analysts to forecast firm performance.

We sample Chinese listed companies from 2010 to 2022. Following the literature, we apply established models to measure and test analysts’ forecasting accuracy/dispersion related to controlling shareholders pledging equity and the amount of margin call pressure. Analyst characteristics and nonfinancial disclosures proxied by CSR reports are also examined as factors likely to influence the relationship between pledge risk and analysts’ forecast quality.

We find that analysts’ earnings predictions are less accurate and more dispersed as the proportion of shares pledged (pledge ratio) increases and in combination with greater margin call pressure. Pledge ratios are significantly associated with several information risk proxies (i.e. earnings permanence, accruals quality, audit quality, financial restatements, related party transactions and internal control weaknesses), validating the channel through which equity pledges undermine analysts’ forecast quality. The results also demonstrate that forecast quality declines for a wide variety of analysts’ attributes, including high- and low-quality analysts and analysts from small and large brokerage firms. Importantly, nonfinancial disclosures, as proxied by CSR reporting, improve analysts’ forecasts.

We extend the literature by demonstrating that incremental pledge risk increases non-diversifiable information risk; all non-pledging shareholders pay a premium through more diverse and less accurate earnings forecasts. Our study provides important policy implications with economically significant costs to investors associated with insider equity pledges. Our results highlight the benefits of nonfinancial disclosures in China, which has implications for the current debate on the global convergence of CSR reporting.

The purpose of our study is to examine the functioning of internal capital markets (ICMs) within business groups in Iran. We document how the ultimate owner's economic interests in affiliated firms influence their investment and dividend policies.

Using hand-collected data on the ownership structures of Iranian firms, we first identify group-affiliated firms using Almeida et al.’s (2011) method. Having identified business groups, we test a number of hypotheses concerning the dynamics of the ICMs and the implications of the ultimate owner’s incentives for affiliated firms’ behavior.

We first demonstrate that investments of group-affiliated firms are less sensitive to their own cash flow (as compared to stand-alone firms) but are sensitive to the cash flows of other firms affiliated with the same group near or at the bottom of the ownership structure. We next find significant variation in dividend policy within groups, with notably higher dividends for firms close to the ultimate owner. Furthermore, we find that higher investments by firms close to the owner lead to lower dividends by firms positioned far from the owner, but the reverse does not hold.

We are the first to examine the effect of group-affiliated firms’ investments on the dividend policies of other firms based on their position within the group. Our findings illuminate how business groups prioritize funding investments in their closely held firms over paying dividends to outside investors in firms positioned farther from the group owner.

The primary purpose of this research is to examine the influence of perceived service quality (PSQ) on word-of-mouth (WOM) directly and through the mediating role of brand trust (BTR) and student satisfaction (SAT) at private universities located in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

A structured questionnaire and convenience sampling were utilized to collect data from 350 students enrolled in selected private universities in the TRNC. Data analysis was conducted using SmartPLS 4.

This study found that PSQ has a significant influence on WOM. BTR and SAT have a direct and significant effect on WOM. We also found that BTR and SAT mediate the link between PSQ and WOM.

These findings can serve as a guide for university administration to enhance the quality of services offered to students, as well as to enhance existing policies and procedures.

This paper’s originality lies in the use of cognitive-affective behavioural (CAB) to support the relationship between student perceptions of service quality, brand trust, student satisfaction and WOM.

This study investigates the mispricing dynamics of NIFTY 50 Index futures, drawing upon daily data spanning from January 2008 to July 2023.

The study employs both a single regime analysis and a tri-regime model to understand the fluctuations in NIFTY 50 Index futures mispricing.

The study reveals a complex interplay between various market factors and mispricing, including forward-looking volatility (measured by the NIFVIX index), changes in open interest, underlying index return, futures volume, index volume and time to maturity. Additionally, the relationships are regime-dependent, specifically identifying the regime-dependent nature of the relationship between forward-looking volatility and mispricing, the impact of futures volume on mispricing, the effect of open interest on mispricing, the varying influence of index volume and the influence of time to maturity across the three distinct regimes.

These findings offer valuable insights for policymakers and investors by providing a detailed understanding of futures market efficiency and potential arbitrage opportunities. The study emphasizes the importance of understanding market dynamics, transaction costs and timing, offering guidance to enhance market efficiency and capitalize on trading opportunities in the evolving Indian derivatives market.

The Vector Autoregression (VAR) and Threshold Vector Autoregression Regression (TVAR) models are deployed to disentangle the interrelationships between NIFTY 50 Index futures mispricing and related endogenous determinants.

This study investigates the Nifty 50 Index futures mispricing across three distinct market regimes.

We highlight how factors like volatility, futures volume, and open interest vary in their impact.

The study employs vector auto-regressive and threshold vector auto-regressive models to explore the complex relationships influencing mispricing.

We provide valuable insights for investors and policymakers on improving market efficiency and identifying potential arbitrage opportunities.

This study aims to unveil the impact of strategic renewal and its implications on employment during the COVID-19 pandemic. It explores the role of strategic renewal in mitigating the adverse effects of crises, fostering organizational adaptation and restructuring capabilities. Additionally, it examines the moderating effect of familiness on understanding the strategic renewal process and its importance to family firms during times of crisis.

The study utilizes data from the STEP Project Global Consortium, which collected information from 3,026 family firms operating in 75 countries and various sectors during the pandemic. Structural Equation Modeling was employed to test the authors' research hypotheses.

The authors' results reveal that strategic renewal significantly impacted employment growth during the COVID-19 pandemic of family firms. Strategic renewal plays a crucial role in mitigating the negative effects of that crisis on employment by helping firms adapt and restructure their capabilities. The study also found that synergies among family members positively influenced innovation in organizational resilience and enhanced the positive effects of strategic renewal on employment growth.

This study contributes to the literature by emphasizing the importance of strategic renewal of family businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. It offers insights into mitigating vulnerability risks amidst crises and adds to the understanding of the strategic renewal process and its implications for the organizations. The findings hold theoretical implications for the field of strategic management and provide valuable insights into the unique challenges and opportunities faced by family firms in uncertain environments.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-11-2022-0771

The purpose of this research is to investigate the differences between financial crises of fear and confidence and the differential behavior between downtrends and recovery.

Five national stock markets have been analyzed – the USA (SP500), China (Hang Seng), Spain (IBEX 35), Japan (Nikkei) and Germany (DAX) – through the evolution of three world economic crises: the mortgage bubble crisis of 2007 in the first place, with special attention to the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, which will be treated as an independent crisis process, and the crisis caused by COVID-19. The behavioral finance theory, with the support of the complexity theory in the field of risk management, will establish the different behavioral biases that explain the differences between the two types of crises, fear and confidence, when confronted with risk.

Economic crises resulting from a shocking event, addressed as crises of fear in this research, such as Lehman Brothers or COVID-19, are fast-moving; all the economies analyzed show a common pattern of evolution. The difference is found in the recovery periods in which the previous parallelism does not continue. Crisis events that arise from a social context, addressed as crises of trust in this research, follow similar patterns in their evolution; nonetheless, the start date presents higher variations than those originated by a shock. These crises also lack parallelism between fall and recovery.

Understanding crisis process patterns may help to prevent them and alleviate their effects when they occur.

Understanding crisis process patterns may help to prevent them and alleviate their effects when they occur. This constitutes an original field of research.