Antecedents and outcomes of interpersonal influences and the role of acculturation: The case of young British-Muslims

Prior research considers antecedents and outcomes of interpersonal influence without consideration of acculturation. Data collected from 222 young British-Muslims using focus groups, in-depth interviews and questionnaires identifies significant antecedents and outcomes concluding that self-congruity, clothing conformity, need for uniqueness and modesty are major contributors to susceptibility to interpersonal influence. Acculturation moderates the effects of self congruity and susceptibility to interpersonal influence. The paper discusses implications for clothing retailers suggesting that self-congruity, conformity and modesty require closer attention to develop effective promotion and product strategies. The study is first of its kind within the UK ethnic minorities market.     

Ranking by competence using a fuzzy approach

New approaches in economics of education consider the concept of competence to bringing in the multidimensional feature of labour force quality. Competence includes knowledge, skills, behaviours and attitudes. Each individual suits the combination of these elements to perform a task. Thus, different combinations expectedly lead to different task performance inside an occupation. In this paper, we focus on individual heterogeneity in homogeneous job requirements context. In sequel, we establish a theorem on unit simplex that potentially provides a ranking system by competence. The system is designed under a grade of membership framework, with a technique based on fuzzy sets theory. Under certain conditions, the referred theorem allows a mapping of individual multidimensional feature into the interval [0, 1]. So, the greater the value along this interval, the more competent the individual. An empirical study of a banking sector activity illustrates our research.     

An opinion survey of malaysian middle level managers and professionals

This study reports the results of an opinion survey of a Malaysian managerial subelite, potential future business and government leaders. Their responses to propositions put forth in a detailed questionnaire indicate that they have values conforming to those associated with Western bureaucratic society. The results of this 1982 survey are discussed under the topics of attitudes toward women, attitudes toward business and religion, station in life, and peer trust levels.Bernard Sarachek is with the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Aziz Abdul Hamid and Zakaria Bin Ismail are with the Faculty of Business Management, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.     

Who drives whom ‐ sukuk or bond? A new evidence from granger causality and wavelet approach

Sukuk is a highly appealing alternative instrument of conventional bond in the financial market over the last two decades. To a certain extent, the market players assume sukuk as the same as bond. However, sukuk has its own fundamental asset backed principles, whereas bond is backed by debt. The objective of the study is to examine the Granger‐causality and lead–lag relationship between sukuk and bond by using the data of the Malaysian Government securities return for both conventional and Islamic instruments. The data for every working day of 7 years covering the period from January 31, 2007 to December 31, 2013 were collected from Bloomberg database. The yield returns of both securities have been plotted for each six months of a year. This study applied both Granger‐causality and dynamic co‐movement techniques such as, continuous wavelet transforms (CWT) coherence for analyzing the temporal evolution of the frequency content of both securities by decomposing each period into different time scales. The empirical findings of the paper reveal that with a bit of exception, there is a causal relationship between sukuk securities and conventional bonds for a given period of time. For robustness, this study applied the wavelet coherence approach and found that bond is led by sukuk in the long term investment horizon rather than in the short term. Our findings relating to the lead‐lag relationship between sukuk and bonds have important implications in terms of policy regulations and investment management. Future research and market practices could reinvestigate the differences between these two securities across different markets and types.     

Futures-oriented municipal planning

Amid the current political and economic uncertainties, the long-term perspective in municipal planning in Sweden has been shortened and planning has become more like crisis management. This paper presents a model for municipal futures studies that may contribute toward development of a municipal planning system that can adapt itself to different types of sudden change while still taking long-term welfare goals and resource conservation issues into consideration.So far, models in futures studies have been largely developed to study global and national development. The article therefore places special emphasis on the methodological issues of developing a model for municipal futures studies. The aim of the model is to increase strategic thinking by planners and decision-makers; it requires that futures studies and conventional planning activities be closely integrated.The model is in the process of implementation in the municipality of Västerås. Some features of the model will also be integrated into a futures study of urban housing to be undertaken in the municipality of Umeå.     

Seeking Capital Abroad: Motivations,Process, and Suggestions for Success

Until fairly recently, the ownership of companies has remained largely with investors in home countries with stocks listed only on domestic exchanges. But a growing number of firms are now raising equity capital on foreign stock exchanges in response to opportunities created by the increasing integration of global capital markets. The authors identify several reasons why seeking capital abroad is an attractive strategy for companies, including greater access to capital, a more liquid share price, easier means of offering employees equity interests in the firm, greater opportunities to make acquisitions, and at least the potential for a stronger reputation and higher valuation, stemming in part from better governance law and greater protection for minority investors in certain jurisdictions. But along with such potential benefits, companies that raise capital abroad also inevitably face liabilities of foreignness (LOF) in their dealings with foreign investors and capital markets. The authors propose a number of ways of minimizing such liabilities, that including signalling the firm's commitment to strengthening its internal governance system, adopting host country business practices, and enlisting the help of reputational intermediaries.