Analysis of rural activity spaces and transport disadvantage using a multi-method approach

Current knowledge about the relationship between transport disadvantage and activity space size is limited to urban areas, and as a result, very little is known about this link in a rural context. In addition, although research has identified transport disadvantaged groups based on their size of activity space, these studies have, however, not empirically explained such differences and the result is often a poor identification of the problems facing disadvantaged groups. Research has shown that transport disadvantage varies over time. The static nature of analysis using the activity space concept in previous research studies has lacked the ability to identify transport disadvantage in time. Activity space is a dynamic concept; and therefore possesses a great potential in capturing temporal variations in behaviour and access opportunities. This research derives measures of the size and fullness of activity spaces for 157 individuals for weekdays, weekends, and for a week using weekly activity-travel diary data from three case study areas located in rural Northern Ireland. Four focus groups were also conducted in order to triangulate quantitative findings and to explain the differences between different socio-spatial groups. The findings of this research show that despite having a smaller sized activity space, individuals were not disadvantaged because they were able to access their required activities locally. Car-ownership was found to be an important life line in rural areas. Temporal disaggregation of the data reveals that this is true only on weekends due to a lack of public transport services. In addition, despite activity spaces being at a similar size, the fullness of activity spaces of low-income individuals was found to be significantly lower compared to their high-income counterparts. Focus group data shows that financial constraint, poor connections both between public transport services and between transport routes and opportunities forced individuals to participate in activities located along the main transport corridors.     

Shadow Banking Credit Intermediation： Determinants of Default Risks in Securitization and Collateralization

The growth in shadow banking system over the past few years is acknowledged as the key risk to Malaysia＇s financial stability. This is because that it is associated with growth in the household debts extended by the shadow banks. In line with initiatives by the Bank Negara Malaysia （the Central Bank of Malaysia） to enhance surveillance on the activities of the shadow banks in Malaysia, this study attempts to examine the determinants of default risks of shadow banks restricting to focus on their two main activities： securitization and collateralization. The results provide empirical evidence that future methodology to examine the systemic risks in the shadow banking system may need to account for additional explanatory variables that measure collateralized assets that are being intermediated.     

The Effect of Culture and Religiosity on Business Ethics: A Cross-cultural Comparison

This article examined the effect of culture and religiosity on perceptions of business ethics among students in a tertiary institution in Malaysia. A structured questionnaire was developed with scenarios on various aspects of business ethics, and self-administered to the students in the business studies program. The results from 767 respondents showed that there were significant differences among the Malays, Chinese, and Indian students on seven scenarios namely selling hazardous products, misleading instructions, selling defective products, padding expense account, taking sick to take a day off, keeping quiet on defective products, and respond to supplier’s take good care of clients attitude. There was also an association between culture and religiosity. The MANOVA results also showed that culture and religiosity have an effect on perceptions of business ethics.     

The impact of microfinance on poverty and income inequality in developing countries

Economic growth in developing countries provides an opportunity to accelerate progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, in reality, the number of people living in extreme poverty remains unacceptably high. Utilising the experiences of 34 developing countries for the period 2009 to 2016, the role of microfinance on poverty in these countries is examined. The results imply that the degree to which the existing forms of microfinance effectively reduce extreme poverty is less workable in developing countries, particularly when the hardcore poor are likely being deprived of receiving access to microfinance. It is suggested that governments may need to revise the structure and strategy of microfinance to be more hardcore poor oriented. The hardcore poor have needs beyond pure monetary assistance. More hand‐holding types of assistance are needed as most are also poor in respect of literacy, assets, and skills.     

The audit expectation gap： A review of the contributing factors

The audit expectation gap is critical to the auditing profession because the greater the unfulfilled expectations from the public, the lower is the credibility, earning potential and prestige associated with the work of auditors. The aim of this paper is to uncover the causes of an audit expectation gap. It is revealed that the existence of an audit expectation gap is due to complicated nature of an audit function; conflicting role of auditors; retrospective evaluation of auditors＇ performance; time lag in responding to changing expectation; and self-regulation process of the auditing profession.     

Components of CEO Remuneration and Non‐GAAP Disclosure

This paper provides evidence of the effect of chief executive officer (CEO) remuneration on decisions to disclose voluntary non‐generally accepted accounting principles (non‐GAAP) financial measures. We investigate profit announcements that focus on the most emphasised part, which includes mandatorily identified information (results for the announcement to the market) and the least emphasised part, which incorporates other sections. By reading the profit announcements and manually collecting non‐GAAP financial measures (NGFM) data, there is no reliance on keyword search strings and as such we uncover the pervasiveness of the use of NGFM. Results show that the base component of CEOs’ remuneration plays a significant role in reporting NGFM in the most emphasised part of the profit announcement. Conversely, all three (base, short‐term and long‐term incentives) components of the remuneration package have a significant relationship with the reporting decisions in the least emphasised part of the statement. We find that, depending on the regulatory imposition and the emphasis assigned to the section of the profit announcement, the motive for voluntary disclosure of NGFM can be explained as altruistic (informative) or opportunistic (misleading). We contribute evidence on ‘pay–action’ rather than ‘pay–performance’ by incorporating all three components simultaneously into the framework to maintain the assumption of correspondence and internal consistency among those components.     

Modeling and forecasting trading volume index: GARCH versus TGARCH approach

Volatility has been described as an indicator of uncertainty which has implications for investment decisions, risk management as well as monetary policy. This paper investigates the pattern of volatility in the daily trading volume index of Hong Kong stock exchange. The empirical evidence provided in this paper suggests that TGARCH specification is superior to GARCH specification. This is particularly important when one is dealing with the case of asymmetric information that captures the leverage effect of the volatile stock market.     

An investigation of consumer evaluation of brand extensions

This paper deals with the effects of perceived quality, perceived fit and perceived difficulty, and interaction between perceived quality and fit on consumer evaluations of brand extension. We used multi‐item scales to measure these constructs. Data were analysed via structural equation models. Results show that both perceived quality and perceived fit have direct positive effects on consumer evaluation of extensions. We find support for the chance of transferring the positive values of a brand to an extension is greater when consumers see the extension as a good fit with the original brand and the original brand is considered as of high quality.