Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

Proactive Strategies, Absorptive Capacity And Competitive Advantage Of Small And Medium Enterprise (Smes) Firms In East Java Indonesia, Ardianus Laurens Paulus

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

Proactive strategy and absorptive capacity are crucial components in building a competitive advantage, particularly in the Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs) sector. This study examines the moderating role of absorptive capacity in strengthening the relationship between proactive strategy and competitive advantage among SMEs in East Java, Indonesia. The sampling technique employed was non-probability sampling, specifically a purposive sampling method, involving 65 SME owners as respondents. Data were collected through surveys and analyzed using Smart PLS. The findings reveal that a proactive strategy significantly positively affects competitive advantage, and absorptive capacity reinforces this relationship. This research provides theoretical contributions and practical …

Factors Affecting The Adoption Of Artificial Intelligence-Driven Wearable Technology In The Malaysian Healthcare Sector: A Conceptual Framework, Syeda Hafsa Rizwan, Anusuyah Subbarao, Nasreen Khan, Farrukh Ahmed Khan, Shaikh Fazlur Rahman, Nimra Aziz, Syed Muntazir Azhar Shah

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

This conceptual paper examines the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven wearable technology, including smartwatches, fitness trackers, wearable ECGs, glucose monitors, and pain management devices, in transforming healthcare in Malaysia. Despite the extreme potential to enhance patient care and healthcare monitoring, the adoption of AI-driven wearable technology remains limited due to several persistent barriers. The purpose of this study is to examine these challenges and propose a framework to improve the integration of AI-driven wearable technology in Malaysia’s healthcare system. Grounded in the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory, this study examines how five key innovation attributes —relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, …

Sectoral Shockwaves: Examining Bursa Malaysia's Sector Indices Amid The Covid-19 Pandemic, Alyssa April Dellow, Hafizah Bahaludin

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak is becoming a widespread concern, as it is causing a decline in economies and negatively impacting stock markets worldwide. As the Malaysian government implements the Movement Control Order (MCO) to curb the spread of the deadly virus, the Malaysian stock market is rapidly impacted, becoming volatile and unpredictable throughout the pandemic phase. Thus, this study aims to analyse the structural correlation patterns of the Bursa Malaysia Sectoral Index Series using the threshold network approach. The data utilised in this study are the closing prices of all 13 sectoral indexes, spanning from January 1, 2019, …

Understanding The Happiness Journey Of International Students Through Maslow's Lens: A Qualitative Study Beyond Academics, Kyra Law Ley Sy

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

This research investigates the factors contributing to happiness among international students at a Malaysian university through a qualitative, semi-structured questionnaire administered to 10 students (5 female and 5 male) from nine countries. Four key themes emerged, aligning with Maslow’s Hierarchy: 1) Personal Achievement and Academic Fulfillment- happiness derived from educational success and career progress; 2) Social Connection and Belonging- the importance of relationships and cultural integration; 3) Health and Environmental Comfort- adaptation to climate and living conditions; and 4) Internal Reflection and Emotional Regulation- the impact of mindset and coping mechanisms on overall happiness. The research demonstrates that international student …

Gamification Strategies And Customer Churn Reduction In Entrepreneurial Retail Firms: An Empirical Study Of Millennials, Si Chong En, Oo Yu Hock, Nor Azila Mohd Noor, Zheng Feei Ma, Khairul Nizam Mahmud

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

This study investigates the impact of gamification strategies on customer churn reduction in entrepreneurial retail firms, focusing on Millennial consumers in Malaysia’s Klang Valley. Customer churn threatens profitability, particularly for emerging enterprises, and gamification has emerged as a potential tool to enhance customer engagement and retention. Drawing on the Self-Determination Theory, the study examines three gamified marketing interventions: membership programmes, contest rewards, and personalised discounts as direct predictors of churn reduction. A quantitative, cross-sectional research design was employed, using a structured questionnaire distributed to 180 Millennial consumers through purposive sampling. The data were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation …

Investigating Volatility Spillover Between The Energy Market And The Sectoral Stock Markets In Malaysia: Evidence From Vhar-Type Models, Mariam Mohamed Abdelwahab Mohamed Badawi, Sew Lai Ng, Ruzanna Ab Razak

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

This study examines the realised volatility spillover effects between Malaysia's energy market and other sectoral indices on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange from September 2018 to December 2024. To address the limitations of current volatility modelling approaches, this study employs the Vector Heterogeneous Autoregressive (VHAR) model combined with the Realised Range-Based Volatility (RRV) measure to capture heterogeneous market behaviours at daily, weekly, and monthly time horizons. High-frequency data from September 2018 to December 2024 (earlier data are unavailable for some sectors) were collected from the financial data provider Bloomberg. The findings reveal that the energy sector exhibits strong volatility persistence, …

Expanding Waste Segregation Initiatives To Reduce Regulated Medical Waste: A Multi-Departmental Quality Improvement Project, Emily M. Su, Anuja L. Sarode, Mohammed Sami, David R. Nehring, Erica L. Laipply, Mustafa Culcuoglu

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

Background

Regulated medical waste (RMW) drives up health care costs, largely due to misclassification of general waste, especially in operating rooms (ORs), intensive care units (ICUs), and obstetrics and gynecology (OBGYN) departments. This study aimed to reduce RMW volume and costs at Akron City Hospital (ACH) through department-specific interventions aligning with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Ohio Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.

Methods

Periodic analyses compared hospital-wide aggregate RMW volume, pick-up frequency, and disposal costs before and after interventions. The ORs initiated interventions in October 2022, expanding to ICUs and OBGYN by February 2024. Strategies included staff education, flyers …

Reassessing Residential Reits: Performance And Resilience After Covid-19, Donna Seapoe, Anne Keenaghan, Davinder Malhotra

School of Business Faculty Papers

This study analyzes the monthly returns of residential real estate investment trusts (REITs) from 2010 through 2025, assessing how these investments performed both during and following the COVID-19 pandemic. Using Sharpe, Sortino, and Omega ratios and multi-factor asset pricing models, the study finds that residential REITs delivered stable risk-adjusted returns and improved downside protection relative to broad indices. Value-at-risk metrics confirmed their defensive nature, and portfolio optimization demonstrated diversification and volatility reduction when including residential REITs. Overall, residential REITs were shown to preserve capital and improve portfolio efficiency during market disruptions

Bank Finance And Private Sector Development: A Comparative Study Of Sub- Saharan Africa And The Oecd Economies, Raymond Asamoah

Doctoral Dissertations (DBA)

The study examines bank credits to the private sector and the factors driving bank decisions in 25 Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries and 25 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, which are considered both developing and developed countries by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, with comparative stabilized economies. It focuses on the factors that influence banks to offer credit to the private sector. Domestic credit to the private sector as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) is used as the dependent variable. 8 determinants or explanatory variables are used to explain Bank credit decisions. …

Greenhouse Gas Emissions And Stock Market Volatility In The Eurozone: Evidence From Sectoral Structure And Climate Policy, Toulin Mohamed Albostany

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the relationship between greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and stock market volatility in the Eurozone from 2000 to 2023. The analysis is driven by increasing concerns regarding climate related financial risks, investigating whether various types of emissions induce financial market instability and whether this relationship is influenced by the economic frameworks and climate policy contexts. Utilizing annual panel data from 20 Eurozone countries, stock market volatility is assessed by a Dynamic Conditional Correlation Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (DCC-GARCH) framework, which accounts for time-varying volatility and inter-market dependence. The empirical strategy integrates pooled OLS, fixed-effects models, and instrumental-variables Generalized …

What Are The Factors Affecting The Financial Sustainability Of Social Enterprises In Egypt?, Mina Atta Ghaly

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates what factors affect the financial sustainability of social enterprises (SEs) in Egypt, situating them within a constrained MSME, legal and sectoral context marked by informality, weak innovation and recurrent shocks. Drawing on global and Egyptian literature, it identifies ten candidate factors—business model, financial management, founders’ skills and mindset, revenue structure, sector and mission, legal framework and innovative finance, capacity building, investment mechanisms and “the right investor”, adaptability to shocks, and ecosystem conditions—and integrates them into an extended Social Enterprise Model Canvas. Using a qualitative, exploratory design with semi‑structured interviews of social enterprise founders, incubators/accelerators, investors and experts, …

Effect Of Fintech Adoption On Commercial Banks’ Stability: Evidence From Gcc And North Africa, Ibrahim Ahmed

Theses and Dissertations

This paper looks at how financial technology (FinTech) adoption affects bank stability, measured by distance to default. It uses a unbalanced panel of listed banks from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and North Africa over the period from 2010 to 2024. To consider differences in bank risk and institutional traits, the study uses random-effects panel regressions along with quantile regression models and interaction specifications. These methods allow the effects of FinTech to change depending on the level of bank risk and the size of the bank. The results indicate that FinTech development does not have the same effect on banks’ …

Can Blockchain-Adoption Announcements Create Market And Operating Value In Banks? Evidence From An Event Study For Global Banks Initiatives, Nourhan Said

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis offers quantitative work in exploring the market value and operation advantages associated with blockchain initiatives in listed banks. We utilized an event study approach to analyze the market value added to banks adopting blockchain technology on a short term. The sample consist of 126 event observations spanning 30 different countries in the period between 2016 and 2024. The study also focuses on the signals and cues that drive the changes in the banks’ abnormal returns and cumulative abnormal returns. Different project attributes like the blockchain type, blockchain application, and objective as well as bank characteristics like the bank …

The Impact Of Central Bank Digital Currencies News On Bank Stability: Evidence From Asean-5 Countries, Firman Hidayat, Raditya Sukmana, Masrizal Masrizal, Rahmat Heru Setianto

Bulletin of Monetary Economics and Banking

This study constructs an index reflecting Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) news coverage and evaluates its impact on bank stability. The CBDC Attention Index (CBDCAI) is formulated based on more than 533 Reuters Digital News Report articles from 2019 to 2023. Employing the System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) approach with data from 92 banks across ASEAN-5 nations, and implementing quantile regression for robustness checks, the findings demonstrate a significant relationship between the CBDCAI and bank stability, alongside variables such as bank size and capitalization. These results offer valuable guidance for central banks, especially within the ASEAN-5 region, as they …

The Drivers Of The Gender Gap In Financial Inclusion For Entrepreneurial Development: Empirical Analysis From Tanzania, Cornel Joseph, Chakupewa Joseph Mpambije

Business Management Review

The gender gap in financial inclusion is a significant concern for both the academic community and policymakers, as it represents a critical factor influencing the development of entrepreneurship in Tanzania. Using the World Bank’s Findex database of 2021, this paper examines the drivers of the gender gap in financial inclusion for entrepreneurial development in Tanzania. The study adopts the Fairlie decomposition to examine the contribution of these factors to the gender gap in access and usage of financial services. The empirical results from the Fairlie decomposition analysis confirm the existence of a gender gap in access to financial services in …

Efficiency, Concentration, And Diversification: Portfolio Lessons From Indian Technology Equities, Davinder K. Malhotra, Shaurya Batra, Rahul Singh

School of Business Faculty Papers

This study examines the extent to which Indian technology equities generate sufficient returns relative to their inherent volatility and assesses whether intra-sector diversification can improve outcomes in this dynamic, high-risk sector. Drawing on data from January 2020 to April 2025, ten leading firms are analyzed using an integrated approach that incorporates traditional risk-adjusted indicators, downside-sensitive metrics, and a six-factor model featuring momentum. The results show clear heterogeneity in performance. Mid-cap innovators such as Persistent Systems and Coforge deliver positive and, in some cases, statistically significant alphas, while large-cap stocks including Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and Wipro provide stability but …

Equity Fund Monthly Report, February 2026, Archway Investment Fund

Archway Investment Fund

No abstract provided.

Firm-Level Political Risk And Earnings Manipulation, Hui Liang James, Thanh Ngo, Jurica Susnjara

Accounting, Finance, Information Systems, and Business-Law Faculty Publications and Presentations

Using recently developed proxies for firm-level political risk and earnings manipulation, we test the limited attention theory. Contrary to Hirshleifer and Teoh’s core prediction that investor attention is associated with less managerial manipulation, we find that firm-level political risk, serving as a proxy for investor attention, is positively associated with manipulative earnings management, using both accruals and real activities. The results are robust to alternative proxies for political risk and earnings manipulation, various techniques addressing endogeneity concerns, and subsamples of firms with different earnings manipulation incentives. Moreover, we find that the negative relation between earnings manipulation and subsequent operating performance …

Old Signals, New Era: Reconsidering How Customer Satisfaction And Employee Satisfaction Impact Shareholder Wealth, Cesar Zamudio, Suyun Mah, Vanitha Swaminathan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Extant research suggests that higher levels of customer and employee satisfaction signal a firm’s competitive advantage, resulting in greater firm value. This article advances the understanding of how firms can manage customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction to increase shareholder wealth in a new environment due to the emergence of social media and a new class of retail investors. Drawing from stakeholder theory and signaling theory, we argue that inconsistency in customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction can be informative to investors and lead to greater shareholder wealth in such a new environment. Our findings demonstrate that there is a negative joint …

There Is No One-Size-Fits-All Approach To Sovereign Finance, Guan Seng Khoo, Annie Koh

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In a commentary, SMU Professor Emeritus of Finance (Practice) Annie Koh and Khoo Guan Seng, Asia-Pacific advisory council member of the SWF Academy and EU-Asean Centre, opined that in a volatile world, the strength of a sovereign wealth fund lies in its ability to fulfil its specific, sovereign purpose. Prof Koh and Mr Khoo said that sovereign wealth funds are bespoke instruments of national policy, and in the world of sovereign capital, one size does not, and cannot, fit all. They noted that each fund is a reflection of a country’s unique ambitions, its resource endowments and its specific fears …