Workplace productivity is badly affected by many negative factors such as narcissism, and sadism. In addition, paranoia and antagonism play an important role in increasing workplace incivility. Through emotional intelligence, such negative behaviors could be addressed by managers and their junior colleagues. The current study aims to investigate the parallel mediating role of paranoia, antagonism, and emotional intelligence on the relationship between narcissism, sadism, and workplace incivility. A survey approach was used. Primary data was collected in PLS-SEM. The population of (...) the study was all faculty members in higher education institutions in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region. A measurement model and structural model were developed. The measurement model demonstrated that convergent and discriminant validities were established. The structural model's findings revealed that narcissism, antagonism, and emotional intelligence were not mediated between narcissism and workplace incivility. Similarly, emotional intelligence did not play any mediating role between sadism and workplace incivility. This implied that emotional intelligence has no role in decreasing or reducing workplace uncivil behavior. (shrink)

As the global urgency for environmental sustainability intensifies, leadership plays a pivotal role in shaping eco-friendly behaviors within organizations and beyond. This study examines the role of green inclusive leadership (GIL) in fostering pro-environmental behaviors within the hospitality industry, utilizing the ability, motivation, and opportunity (AMO) theory as a conceptual framework to explain how GIL influences sustainable behaviors. The study highlights AMO as a theoretical model that outlines how AMO can drive organizational success, while addressing motivation as a practical driver (...) of employee behavior. Time-lagged data were gathered from hotel employees and managers in Pakistan. The findings demonstrate that GIL positively affects employees' voluntary green behaviors both at work and in their personal lives. This relationship is mediated by a green work climate and environmental commitment, highlighting the spillover effect from workplace behaviors to daily life. The originality of this work lies in its novel application of AMO theory beyond the workplace, offering insights into how leadership can inspire sustainable actions that extend beyond organizational boundaries, especially in a high-impact sector like hospitality. (shrink)

The world is looking toward organizations for social responsibility to contribute to a sustainable environment. Employees’ organizational citizenship behavior for the environment is a voluntary environmental-oriented behavior that is important for organizations’ environmental performance. Based on social learning theory, this study examined the effects of responsible leadership in connection with OCBE by using a sample of 520 employees in the manufacturing and service sectors in China including engine manufacturing, petroleum plants, banking, and insurance sector organizations. Further, the roles of psychological (...) ownership and employee environmental commitment were used as mediators and moderators simultaneously. The direct, mediation, and moderation model results exposed a positive relationship between responsible leadership and OCBE via employee psychological ownership and employee environmental commitment. The study also revealed that the indirect effect is stronger when employees hold a higher employee environmental commitment. The theoretical and practical implications for environmental sustainability in respect of organizations as well as future research directions are discussed. (shrink)

Efficient community detection in a complex network is considered an interesting issue due to its vast applications in many prevailing areas such as biology, chemistry, linguistics, social sciences, and others. There are several algorithms available for network community detection. This study proposed the Sigmoid Fish Swarm Optimization algorithm to discover efficient network communities. Our proposed algorithm uses the sigmoid function for various fish moves in a swarm, including Prey, Follow, Swarm, and Free Move, for better movement and community detection. The (...) proposed SiFSO algorithm’s performance is tested against state-of-the-art particle swarm optimization algorithms in Q-modularity and normalized mutual information. The results showed that the proposed SiFSO algorithm is 0.0014% better in terms of Q-modularity and 0.1187% better in terms of NMI than the other selected algorithms. (shrink)

The purpose of the research study is to determine a comparative analysis between evil and suffering. Comparative studies of these Western and Eastern religious philosophies demonstrate different results. In Western philosophies, the cause of evil is related to human free will and the law of the universe, focusing on justice driven by God and moral values chosen by humans. On the other hand, the Eastern philosophical theories of various religions focus on the series of experiences that humans face depending upon (...) the cycle of karma, rebirth, and cosmological context. They tend to move toward practical approaches taken by humans to eliminate suffering in their lives by utilizing ethical values and practices. Despite these differences, both philosophies tend to impact human conditions and paths, with the only difference being that Western religions have firm faith in God's plan of justice, whereas Eastern religions focus on the cosmetology and self-motivation of humans. On the other hand, the study of Western religion provides the availability of grooming laws for individuals to attain spiritual goodness personally. Another important factor of Western religions is the involvement of different religion-related institutes like mosques, churches, and schools that help shape the communities living in different areas and increase their social ethics for playing a role in communal enhancement. For education gaining ideas, the Eastern religion is more focused on expanding intellect and gaining wisdom through education. The education is delivered to incorporate such healthy meditations to increase intellect, memory, and spiritual knowledge. In Western religious philosophies, education is taken to illuminate and clarify different purposes and aspects of life. This aspect has also helped develop technology and enhance science background regions also play a proper role in religious teachings for character building, along with the academic type of education. (shrink)

To remain competitive, organizations need an engaged workforce. Although ample research has been carried out on the antecedents of employee work engagement, a comprehensive understanding of how and when voice climate is associated with employee work engagement is currently lacking. Drawing on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study examines the pathway by which voice climate affects employee work engagement. Two studies were conducted to test the proposed linkages. More specifically, in field and experimental studies, we find evidence that (...) voice climate reduces employees’ intention to engage in counterproductive work behavior (CWB), which, in turn, fosters their engagement in their work. In addition, ethical leadership and religiosity were found to act as boundary conditions in the relationship between voice climate and intention to CWB and work engagement. (shrink)

This research paper examines the foreign investment laws and procedure of Pakistan and their role in protection of foreign investment in Pakistan. These laws are untapped area of research and one cannot find any specific research tracing the legal development in this highly specialized field. So far Pakistan has 48 BITs enforced with different countries and has also signed ICSID Convention, which is promulgated locally through Arbitration Act, 2011 incorporating the Convention in the schedule to ease the difficulty of foreign (...) investors to enforce the awards rendered under auspices of ICSID in the territory of Pakistan. Under this research, an attempt has been made to study prevalent foreign investment laws and its trends in Pakistan. Though Pakistan has significantly improved its foreign investment regime by introducing new investor’s friendly laws like, Special Economic Zones Act, 2011 and Investment Policy, 2013 etc., apart from its previous legislation on the subject, yet this regime needs more improvement and updating. Extensive overview of all existing foreign investment laws were carried out in this research. Fair and Equitable Treatment, Expropriation and other factors affecting foreign investment laws are the areas, which need to be taken care of by policy maker in the existing foreign investment laws of Pakistan. With these aims, it is hoped that this research paper would be a humble contribution in the literature on the subject. (shrink)

A connected graph is called Hamilton-connected if there exists a Hamiltonian path between any pair of its vertices. Determining whether a graph is Hamilton-connected is an NP-complete problem. Hamiltonian and Hamilton-connected graphs have diverse applications in computer science and electrical engineering. The detour index of a graph is defined to be the sum of lengths of detours between all the unordered pairs of vertices. The detour index has diverse applications in chemistry. Computing the detour index for a graph is also (...) an NP-complete problem. In this paper, we study the Hamilton-connectivity of convex polytopes. We construct three infinite families of convex polytopes and show that they are Hamilton-connected. An infinite family of non-Hamilton-connected convex polytopes is also constructed, which, in turn, shows that not all convex polytopes are Hamilton-connected. By using Hamilton connectivity of these families of graphs, we compute exact analytical formulas of their detour index. (shrink)

Representation is a major and multifaceted concept of modern politics. Through open and regular elections, it shields the democratic character of representative governments, compelling politicians to pursue the interests of their constituencies and become responsive to their demands. But since the concept of representation is so embedded in the day-to-day workings of democratic regimes, it has largely lost significant traces of its history that shed light on its political dawn. The instrumentalization of the concept by representative governments in order to (...) assess their democratic legitimacy obfuscates its seminal ambiguities and the history of conflicts about its meaning and institutional functions. (shrink)

The devastating impact of the climate crisis has led many countries to promulgate regulations that hold businesses accountable for their environmental externalities. However, while these formal constraints compel businesses to fulfill their legal obligations, scholars argue that acting in a socially and environmentally responsible way requires more than mere compliance with the law. Accordingly, we provide novel evidence of how the concept of social justice, implicit in society as an informal construct, underpins firms’ ethical behavior, compelling them to accept their (...) social responsibilities by reducing their environmental violations, implementing procedures to prevent further infractions, and repairing the breach in social trust that their transgressions have caused by engaging in restorative acts. Based on unique environmental violation and remedial action data from 2007 to 2022 in China, we establish that social trust significantly lowers a firm’s propensity to commit further ecological abuses. We also determine that firms in high-trust regions are more likely to undertake remedial actions in the aftermath of an environmental breach. Moreover, cross-sectional analyses reveal that the relationship between social trust and environmental violations is more pronounced for firms that face greater reputational pressure from higher media reporting, analyst coverage, auditing by Big Four auditors, and institutional site visits. This study augments the literature on environmentalism and argues that social trust also shapes corporate ethical behavior in addition to regulatory pressures. (shrink)

Kısa vadeli likidite sağlama ihtiyacının yanı sıra likidite fazlalığını kısa vadeli değerlendirme ihtiyacı finans kurumlarının ortak problemleridir. Konvansiyonel finans kurumları bu ihtiyaçlarının büyük kısmını repo-ters repo işlemleri ile karşılarken katılım finans kurumları ise faiz şüphesi nedeniyle repo-ters repo katılım bankacılığı ilkelerine uymadığı için bu ihtiyaçları karşılama konusunda problemler yaşamaktadır. Bu durum konvansiyonel finans kurumları ile rekabet halindeki katılım finans kurumları aleyhine işlemektedir. Bu makale repo işlemini ana hatlarıyla açıklayıp fıkhi boyutunu izah ettikten sonra Malezya’daki geri alım vaadi ile satım, Türkiye’deki (...) geri alım vaadi ile satım, organize teverruk, menkul kıymet rehinli karz sözleşmesi ve puantaj sistemi ile tekaruz anlaşması gibi halihazırda İslam dünyasında katılım finans kurumlarının repoya alternatif olarak uyguladıkları işlemleri ele almaktadır. Öte yandan bu çalışma kira sertifikalarının geri alım vaadi ile satımı, yatırım fonları, kira sertifikalarının alım satımı ile teverruk işlemi için katılım finans ilkelerine uygun bir pazar kurulması ve devlet destekli karz-ı hasen fonlarının kurulması gibi katılım finans kurumları adına repoya alternatif olarak düşünülen öneriler üzerinde yoğunlaşmaktadır. (shrink)

L'ouvrage fait découvrir une philosophie majeure de la liberté. Il dégage dans Levinas la puissante dialectique d'une liberté provoquée par l'extériorité. Celui qui se veut libre est appelé à poursuivre sa libération en se délivrant de lui-même. Avec la philosophie altière de Levinas, on ose penser un altruisme libérateur de soi et de tout autre, associé à une politique de la liberté et de l'égalité. A l'encontre d'idées reçues sur l'un des philosophes français les plus profonds du XXe' siècle, on (...) perçoit dans le texte de Levinas l'exigence d'institutions républicaines qui préservent la liberté de la tentation d'abdiquer par lâcheté, lassitude ou épuisement. Levinas permet de soutenir un rationalisme critique réfractaire à l'esprit de système, qui considère le rapport à l'altérité comme le foyer vivant de la pensée. On s'attache à montrer comment l'engagement rationaliste de Levinas, encore méconnu, s'accompagne d'une contestation radicale de toutes les aliénations. (shrink)

La réalité se révèle singulièrement par le « faire instauratif » de l’art, qui lui donne pleine « présence ». Le monde est œuvre à faire : réserve de virtuels, de fantômes à accomplir. L’art, révélateur privilégié du multi-réalisme et son onto-poïétique, réponse à cette polyphonie du fantomal. Sauver l’amorphe a un sens ontologique. Par instauration d’une forme harmonique « questionnante », mais aussi de modes d’existence fictionnels. La poïétique ouvre donc à une énigme en trois volets : « Qu’est-ce (...) qu’une œuvre d’art? », « Qu’est-ce qu’une fiction? », « Qu’est-ce que la réalité? ». Qui convergent dans « l’univers filmique ». La « présence filmophanique » procède d’une triple harmonisation : de l’ intermédialité esthétique, de celle-ci aux aspects diégétiques et profilmiques de la fiction, le tout, à l’œuvre instaurée pour la finalité spectatorielle. Le spectateur n’est pas récepteur passif, mais agent participatif de la co-instauration. Créatrice de monde, la fiction filmique questionne le monde en réalisant l’ontologie de l’être comme multimonde et rouvrant l’interrogation philosophique sur les modes de « l’accomplissement humain ». (shrink)

We argue that although halal certification could potentially reduce the high transaction costs related to buying Islamic financial products, in practice these costs are just replaced by transaction costs relating to the certification itself. It takes considerable time (2–3 months) and money (USD 122.000) to obtain a halal certification. Partially, this is because the market is highly concentrated and non-contestable. About 20 individual Sharia scholars control more than half the market, with the top 3 earning an estimated USD 4.5 million (...) in fees per year. Moreover, this market seems plagued with problems, most notably a strong incentive for excessively lenient certification, lack of consensus on what is considered halal and sub-standard governance practices. We discuss solutions to these problems and conclude that a neutral non-profit government entity should assume the role of halal certifiers. (shrink)

Aujourd'hui inconnu du public, Henri Marion (1846-1896) est avec Ferdinand Buisson l'un des philosophes les plus influents de la révolution scolaire de la IIIe République. Par ses travaux théoriques et son enseignement universitaire de "science de l'éducation", Marion se place au coeur de la rénovation pédagogique voulue par Jules Ferry. Il voit dans la cohérence des trois niveaux de l'instruction publique - primaire, secondaire, supérieur - un principe fondateur de la nouvelle école républicaine. Il se préoccupe de la manière dont (...) l'instituteur et le professeur de lycée "font la classe", avec la conviction que les questions pédagogiques les plus modestes engagent une idée de l'humanité et de la société. Son rationalisme critique le situe au centre des controverses entre positivistes, scientistes, vitalistes et spiritualistes. Théoricien d'une "éducation libérale" fondée sur la raison, il rejette la discipline autoritaire mais soutient les pédagogies de l'effort. Henri Marion associe intimement l'éducation et l'instruction. Philosophe de la solidarité, il repère dans l'individualisme une menace pour l'éducation républicaine et met en avant la portée morale de l'instruction civique. Ses convictions républicaines et son professionnalisme lui font pressentir les dérives technicistes des méthodes pédagogiques prétendument actives et les risques d'un détournement utilitariste de l'éducation nationale. La réflexion philosophique de Marion rappelle que l'école de la IIIe République fut traversée de contradictions qui aident à comprendre les dévoiements et les enjeux de l'éducation du XXIe siècle. (shrink)

In this study, we propose and test the relationship between CSR and firm financial performance, how this relationship differs between firms led by CEOs with political connections and those led by CEOs without political connections, and how this relationship differs between state-owned firms and nonstate-owned firms. Based on a sample of 1645 Chinese listed firms during the period 2011 and 2020 (inclusive), we find that CSR has an inverted U-shaped relationship with firm financial performance. As the level of CSR increases (...) from slight to moderate, CSR is positively related to firm performance; as the level of CSR increases from moderate to great, CSR is negatively related to firm financial performance. Additionally, we find that this inverted U-shaped relationship differs between firms led by CEOs with political connections and those led by CEOs without political connections and differs between state-owned firms and nonstate-owned firms. That is, both the synergic effect (positive effect) of CSR on firm financial performance when the level of CSR is low and the competitive effect (negative effect) of CSR on firm financial performance when the CSR is high are more pronounced for firms led by CEOs without political connections and nonstate-owned firms than for firms led by CEOs with political connections and state-owned firms. The theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed. (shrink)

Conservative agriculture practice adoption literature advocates that adoption is caused by many factors comprising cognitive, social, economic, personal, and CAP-related factors. Evaluating the adoption of CAPs as the outcome is complex and challenging with regression-based models as the systemic interdependencies of the factors offer diverse or varying results. Farmer production and environmental orientations as cognitive stances are notable interpreters of CAP adoption. The appetite level for risk-taking, innovativeness, and trust facilitates the adoption of CAPs. However, a causal-predictive technique should be (...) used to investigate the adoption of CAP. Hence, this study engages in a configuration approach using a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to analyze the patterns of different types of farmers' orientations, personal level of trust on extension services, and innovativeness risk-taking attitude on the intention to adopt CAPs. The analysis is based on the 155-farmer data collected employing a structured interview from Pakistan. The results suggest that a higher level of environment orientation and innovativeness is sufficient to increase the intention to adopt CAPs. Moreover, a higher intention to adopt CAPs is achieved with a lower production orientation, a higher personal level of innovativeness, and a risk-taking attitude of the farmer. The innovativeness can help to develop the intention to adopt the CAPs among the environment and production-oriented farmers. Causal solutions offer a unique understanding that the farmers' environment and production orientation can combine to suggest inclined to adopt CAPs by having an attitude of innovativeness and risk-taking. The causal solutions achieved significant predictive validity in the holdout samples. Policy and farmer-level suggestions were made to raise the intention to adopt CAPs among the farmers. (shrink)

Stock markets accurately reflect countries’ economic health, and stock returns are tightly related to economic indices. One popular area of financial research is the factors that influence stock returns. Several investigations have frequently cited macroeconomic factors, among numerous elements. Therefore, this study focuses on the empirical analysis of the relationship between macroeconomic factors and stock market returns. When a stock market becomes increasingly volatile, it becomes susceptible to economic uncertainty news, and information on social media platforms. Thus, we incorporated a (...) new dimension of economic uncertainty news sentiment for stock return predictions. We employed the daily data ofgold index, crude oil price, interest rate, exchange rate, and stock returns for a set of countries from January 2010 to December 2020. Subsequently, to compute coefficients, we conducted a regression analysis using one of the more sophisticated approaches: single-layer neural networks and ordinary least square regression. In addition, we only computed EUNS for the period of the fiscal budget announcement for the US, Turkey, and Hong Kong. The results indicate that the gold index, interest rate, and exchange rate are highly significant and negative macroeconomic factors for all analyzed countries. These findings also indicate that EUNS is important and detrimental for projecting stock returns. (shrink)

The smart wearable device is a new breed of mobile device that offers diversified utilities for health, sport, and finance for consumers worldwide. The current study aims to investigate the provocation of the intention to use smart wearable payment devices among Malaysian consumers. The unified theory of technology acceptance and use of technology was employed with the cross-sectional survey-based data to explain the adoption of the smart wearable payment device. Furthermore, the UTAUT model was extended with trust and lifestyle compatibility (...) factors to investigate smart wearable payment device adoption. The survey-based data were collected through the online survey and analyzed through the symmetrical modeling approach of partial least squares structural education modeling to evaluate theoretical associations between the study constructs. The fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis was employed as an asymmetrical approach. As a result, it was found that the ease of use, lifestyle compatibility, and trust significantly impacted the intention to adopt smart wearable payment devices. However, social influence and facilitating conditions did not support the intention of adopting smart wearable payment devices. Adopting these devices requires policy and infrastructure development to harness the adoption of smart wearable payment devices. This paper is concluded with study limitations and future research suggestions. (shrink)

The paper deals with Forward exchange contracts and Swap exchange contracts, These two types of contracts are among the most prominent types of financial derivative contracts that arose after the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in 1971 or the so-called Nixon shock, where the convertibility of the dollar into gold was stoped, which led to turmoil in the exchange rates of the currencies of many countries and the emergence of the need to stabilize the exchange rate Currencies in transactions (...) where the delivery of the two exchanges is delayed. This research has studied forward exchange contracts and swap exchange contracts in four sections. The first section defines the Forward exchange contract, which is a contract in which the two parties commit to exchange a specified amount of foreign currencies on a forward date, at a price agreed upon in advance. The elements and elements that must be mentioned in this contract, such as the seller and buyer, the size of the contract, the date of delivery and the forward exchange rate, were mentioned in this section, with an illustrative example of the mechanism of conducting this contract. In addition to addressing the differences between forward exchange contracts and future exchange contracts, the characteristics of forward exchange contracts and the purposes of those dealing with them from hedging and speculation are mentioned in this section. The second section has been devoted to the definition of swap exchange contracts, it is for the two parties to the contract to agree that one of them buys from the other a specific amount of a currency in exchange for a specific amount of another currency and at the current exchange rate, provided that the two exchanges are delivered immediately, and in the same contract, the two parties agree to make a forward reverse exchange contract, at a price determined within Contract, and to clarify the picture of swap exchange contracts, an example has been given to illustrate the mechanism for conducting this type of contract. In the third section, the views of contemporaries scholars regarding the İslamic law of the forward exchange contract were discussed, where the opinion of the objectors was mentioned at all and the evidence they inferred from it. And then the opinion of those who advocate the permissibility of forward exchange contracts that are in the form of a dating that is not binding on both parties together, provided that there is nothing in the dating that indicates that it is a contract of sale and provided that a new contract is delivered independent of the dating. Then I discussed the opinion and evidence of the impediments in four points, and I concluded that the most correct opinion at the first is the impermissibility of the forward exchange contract in the form such as the traditional banks do it because of the deception it contains. But I recanted and permitted this type of contract in two cases, the first: the case of need with the absence of an alternative, and the second: the case that transaction is not binding dating for both parties and on some terms. Some contemporary scholars suggested conducting buying and selling operations in the same currency as an alternative to forward exchange contracts, and some of them suggested that Islamic banks should have a common unit of account to settle accounts between the parties to commercial transactions. But in my opinion two solutions are often not feasible. As for the fourth section, I dealt with the opinions of contemporary scholars in the swap exchange contract. it seems likely to me that swap currency exchange contracts are nothing but a usurious loan that is prohibited by Sharia. Because when examining the mechanism of conducting this type of contract, it turns out that one of the parties lent the other an amount in one currency in exchange for the other lending him an amount in another currency under the name of the spot exchange contract. Since one of the two parties requires the other to increase what he lent - if the exchange rate of the Forward exchange contract is different from the Spot exchange rate, which is predominant - under the name of the Forward exchange contract, then this process is nothing but a usurious loan. I supported the proposal to exchange loans in different currencies as a İslamic alternative to transaction contracts, provided that there is no preference for one party over another, and there is no usurious increase. And in order to solve the problem of the high rate of currency inflation of one of the two loans more than the other, the researcher suggested adding the inflation rate to the two loans when they are performed. (shrink)

The canonical view of a 3‐domain (3D) tree of life was recently challenged by the discovery of Asgardarchaeota encoding eukaryote signature proteins (ESPs), which were treated as missing links of a 2‐domain (2D) tree. Here we revisit the debate. We discuss methodological limitations of building trees with alignment‐dependent approaches, which often fail to satisfactorily address the problem of ‘‘gaps.’’ In addition, most phylogenies are reconstructed unrooted, neglecting the power of direct rooting methods. Alignment‐free methodologies lift most difficulties but require employing (...) realistic evolutionary models. We argue that the discoveries of Asgards and ESPs, by themselves, do not rule out the 3D tree, which is strongly supported by comparative and evolutionary genomic analyses and vast genomic and biochemical superkingdom distinctions. Given uncertainties of retrodiction and interpretation difficulties, we conclude that the 3D view has not been falsified but instead has been strengthened by genomic analyses. In turn, the objections to the 2D model have not been lifted. The debate remains open. Also see the video abstract here:https://youtu.be/-6TBN0bubI8. (shrink)

Using poststructural criticism, we explore how the book of Job deconstructs the deed/consequence nexus that stands at the core of the Hebrew Bible’s theological framework – i.e. the doctrine of reward and punishment. Building on both Derridean deconstruction and Foucauldian resistance, we show that the book of Job refuses to comply with the opposite binary of reward and punishment. First, we demonstrate how the friends in their speeches enforce the binary and, thereby, exercise power over Job. Secondly, we consider Job’s (...) resistance and deconstruction of this binary through both his lived experience and desire to argue with God. Finally, we argue how Job’s desire to argue with God challenges God to defend themself in court. In God’s answer, however, one is introduced to a different God than as portrayed by Job’s friends. Moreover, God’s boastful reply, which lacks any justification for Job’s suffering, makes God appear fragile and weak. As such, this article argues that the book of Job may not merely deconstruct dominant ideology, but also God itself. (shrink)

Modernists T. S. Eliot's and W. B. Yeats's treatment of the transcendent moment, and postmodernists Samuel Beckett's and Graham Swift's handling of the perpetual present form two conflicting time worlds. The modernists' transcendent moment signifies a temporary release from the progressive stream of time. As a sudden flash of awareness, it offers a transcendental vision of reality. Contrariwise, the postmodernists' perpetual present is cut off from the past as well as the future, suggesting the infinite time of the middle. It (...) is dissociated from a transcendent reality and has no room for revelatory moments, which establishes its bleak character. (shrink)

Chatbots powered by large language models (LLMs) are increasingly capable of engaging in what seems like natural conversations with humans. This raises the question of whether we should interact with these chatbots in a morally considerate manner. In this chapter, we examine how to answer this question from within the normative framework of virtue ethics. In the literature, two kinds of virtue ethics arguments, the moral cultivation and the moral character argument, have been advanced to argue that we should afford (...) moral treatment to social robots. However, we propose a moral character argument against the view that we should afford moral treatment to LLM-based chatbots drawing on the notion of practical wisdom. Practical wisdom in this context consists in the skill to discern genuine and artificial sociality. Drawing on ideas from phenomenological philosophy, we argue that this involves the ability to distance oneself from direct social perception and the ability to widen one’s awareness over one’s apparently social interactions. We conclude by suggesting that this skill is a kind of technomoral wisdom required to live well with advanced, social AI systems. (shrink)

Ḥanafī Māturīdīsm: Trajectories of a Theological Legacy, with a Study and Critical Edition of al-Khabbāzī’s Kitāb al-Hādī. By Ayedh S. Aldosari. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing, 2020. Pp. vi + 695. $125, £95.

The purpose of this paper is two-fold. First, this study measures the contribution of banks and non-bank financial institutions toward the systemic risk of China. Second, the present study investigates the relationship between CEO power, CEO overconfidence, and systemic risk. This study uses the Delta Conditional Value-at-Risk method to measure the systemic risk contribution of firms listed on the Shenzhen and Shanghai stock exchanges over a period of 2006–2018. The results show that non-bank financial institutions are systemically more important compared (...) to banks. We employed fixed-effect regression analysis to show that banks with overconfident CEOs increase the firm’s systemic risk. The results also confirm that powerful CEOs enhance the contribution of non-bank financial institutions to systemic risk, whereas CEO power’s impact was significant only for non-state-owned banks. The findings were further validated by the robustness test results obtained using the two-stage least squares approach. These findings are important for constructing regulations to reduce the contribution of firms to systemic risk. (shrink)

The global progress empowers the development of new business and expansion of existing business. The availability of sufficient accounting professional are necessary to manage and document the business activities. However, youth are less inclined to purse accounting as profession to keep the progress of global and local economic development. The current study aimed to explore the formation of the intention to pursue Certified Professional Accountancy Qualification with factor of capabilities, career opportunities, job security with respect to the extended theory of (...) planned behavior, i.e., attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. The study adopted a cross-sectional design and collected quantitative data from a total of 339 accounting students from Malaysia using an online survey. The finding revealed that capabilities and career opportunities influenced the students’ intention to pursue CPAQ. Meanwhile, perceived behavioral control had significantly affect the students’ decision to pursue CPAQ, which is in line with the TPB. The study concentrated on the importance of these factors in influencing the students’ intention and decision to pursue CPAQ. The study offered vital implications for accounting educators and educational institutions to promote the accounting profession as choice and students engage in pursuing CPAQ. The Malaysian government should encourage and support accounting students financially for pursuing CPAQ by providing job security and enhancing subjective norms that may enable these students to complete the required professional qualifications. The study’s limitations and future research opportunities are documented at the end of this article. (shrink)

This study explored the effect of attitude towards entrepreneurship, need for achievement, risk-taking propensity, proactive personality, self-efficacy, opportunity recognition competency, entrepreneurship education, uncertainty avoidance, and entrepreneurial knowledge on entrepreneurial intention among university students in Malaysia. This quantitative study had adopted the cross-sectional design approach and involved 391 university students in Malaysia via the online survey. The study outcomes revealed that the NFA, PRP, and SLE significantly affect students’ attitudes towards entrepreneurship. Moreover, entrepreneurship education and UNA significantly affect ORC. Finally, ATE (...) has a positive and significant effect on ENIN among university students in Malaysia. As entrepreneurship offers an alternative career path for people seeking economic prosperity and addressing social issues, including unemployment, the government should formulate effective policies and regulations that support entrepreneurship activities. Universities and other institutions should play a pivotal role in providing the proper exposure via entrepreneurship education while honing the essential traits for a career in entrepreneurship. (shrink)