Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Given the effects COVID-19 pandemic on the financial sectors across the world, this study examined the reaction of stock returns of 201 firms listed in the Nigerian Stock Exchange to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown policy. We deployed both Pooled OLS and Panel VAR as estimation methods. Generally, the results from POLS show the stock market returns of the Nigerian firms reacted negatively more to the global COVID-19 confirmed cases and deaths than the domestic COVID-19 confirmed cases and deaths and lockdown policy. The results of the impulse response functions revealed that the effects of COVID-19 confirmed cases and deaths and lockdown policy shocks on stock returns oscillate between negative and positive before the stock market returns converge to the equilibrium in the long run. The FEVD results showed that growth in the COVID-19 confirmed cases, deaths and lockdown policy shocks explained little variations in stock market returns. Given our finding, we advocate for the relaxation of policy of lockdown and the combine use of monetary and fiscal policies to mitigate the negative effect of COVID-19 pandemic on stock market returns in Nigeria.

The objective of this study is to examine the aspects of investment in human capital like training of employees, education level of employees, knowledge level of employees, and skills of employees that influence the performance of a bank and to provide some comments to improve the banking sectors. This research included a conceptual model along with hypotheses. This empirical study is based on primary data. The data were obtained by the convenient sampling procedure with a questionnaire using the seven-point Likert scale. The hypothesized model has been validated using data from 261 participants, and an analysis was conducted using the system of structural equation modelling. The results revealed that investment in training, knowledge level and skills of the employee were positively connected to bank performance at less than 1% and a 5% level of significance. But the employee’s educational level does not substantially affect bank output in this analysis. The focus field is the study of the human capital investments of the Human Resources Division at Janata Bank Limited. It investigates different aspects of the Janata Bank’s facilities as well as the problems and prospects. Thus, this study can be a policy dialogue for the managers, owners, decision-makers, and academicians.

The existing literature highlights the determinants of trade openness with disregard to the income classifications of countries in examining whether the determinants differ given their income levels. This study, therefore, re-examines the drivers of trade openness in Africa relying on panel data with special focus on the role of economic growth. More specifically, we perform a comparative analysis of the factors influencing trade openness for low-income and lower–middle-income countries using the system generalized method of moments. Our findings suggest that, while economic growth robustly enhances openness in low-income countries, in the case of lower–middle-income countries, the impact is not robust and largely negative suggesting that higher growth is associated with less openness. We also find that, economic growth–openness nexus for the lower-income countries exhibits non-linearities and inverted U-shaped relationship in particular. Thus, while increases in real GDP per capita enhance openness, beyond an estimated threshold point, any increases in economic growth dampen openness. We discuss key implications for policy.

The study examines the role of the knowledge economy (KE) in Asian businesses in 45 countries for 2000–2019. KE indicators include education, economic incentives, innovation, institutional regime, and information and communication technology. The business indicators used in the study are starting, doing, and closing business. The empirical analysis is carried out by applying principal component analysis (PCA) and instrument variable panel fixed effects estimator. The results proved that the KE indicators are essential to improve businesses in Asia. They help the economies to boost their business sector and help to fight against poverty and unemployment.

The COVID-19 pandemic undesirably affected the hospitality industry, and therefore, preventive measures have been advocated as crucial when revitalizing or rejuvenating the industry. This study investigated the interplay of predicting role of COVID-19 preventive measures, perceived brand ethicality, and brand legitimacy in the hospitality industry in Tanzania during the period of reviving the industry. Furthermore, the study examines the mediating role of perceived brand ethicality in the relationship between COVID-19 preventive measures and brand legitimacy. Data were collected from a total of 405 customers of hospitality organizations recruited via an on-site survey. Data analyses were done using structural equation modeling. Overall, the results have shown that COVID-19 preventive measures had a direct positive effect on brand legitimacy. Additionally, COVID-19 preventive measures could enhance brand legitimacy indirectly via perceived brand ethicality. The study has significant implications for different hospitality organizations and operators in Tanzania and other countries during post the COVID-19 period.

Work–family conflict is a subject of interest for researchers in the field of organizational behavior for decades because of its negative impact on an individual’s life. The existing literature identified that workplace stressors contribute to work–family conflict and Perceived Organizational Politics emerged as an aversive workplace stressor. From empirical pieces of evidence, it is observed that perceived organizational politics and work–family conflict are indirectly associated with each other, and their impact on employees is unavoidable. To explore this uncovered relationship, at first, this study used a keywords co-occurrence network mapping approach and found that perceived organizational politics and work–family conflict are associated with each through various workplace variables. Further, with the help of a scoping review identify those specific variables, and, lastly, a systematic review approach used to identify a mechanism of how these identified variables form an association between perceived organizational politics and work–family conflict. Based on the findings of the systematic review, this study proposed a conceptual framework that extends the existing literature by providing new insight into concepts of perceived organizational politics by linking it with work–family conflict. This study introduced a novel way to develop a conceptual framework by linking three distinct approaches of research. In the last, this study proposed recommendations for future research.

The pandemic novel Coronavirus disease and the resulting lockdowns have contributed to major economic disturbances around the world, forcing organisations to extend the work-from-home (WFH) option to their employees wherever feasible. The current major challenge of this option is maintaining the efficiency and productivity of the employees across the organisations. It is therefore important to understand the impact of this make-shift arrangement of WFH policy and their underlying effects that may affect the efficiency of employees and hence their output levels. This is a distinctive approach to develop a unique framework for efficiency index computation by evaluating the efficiency levels of WFH mode in software organisations using multi-grade fuzzy approach and importance–performance analysis. In turn, this would help to determine the crucial attributes that require improvement to increase the efficiency levels of employees concerned. In this study, a case project has been assessed and it was observed that the efficiency index of WFH accounts to 4.92, which is in between the range of (4.01–6) specified as ‘Efficient’. The framework can be used on a periodic basis to help software organisations to continuously improve their WFH efficiency level.

The present study focused on one of the important South Asian nations—Sri Lanka—to examine the role of idiosyncratic volatility in asset prices. A four-factor model with idiosyncratic volatility was designed for capturing the market, size, value and idiosyncratic risk yields better than Fama and French’s (J Financ Econ 33:3–56, 1993) three-factor model and performance of the model. Fama–MacBeth’s cross-sectional regression, residual graphs and GRS test all confirm the superiority of four-factor model over 2 three-factor models. For all MC- and IVOL-based portfolios, idiosyncratic volatility is negatively related to the expected returns and positively related for all PB-based portfolios. Finally, study findings confirm that there is a high importance for idiosyncratic volatility risk factor while considering investment decision in Colombo stock exchange. Hence, investor should compensate for holding such risk factors in the portfolio.