Three essays on institutions and banking

The performance of banks and their level of growth have a significant impact on the entire economy. However, only a few countries have a developed banking system and economic development. Political economy emphasises the importance of the institutional environment of each market on economic and banking performance. In particular, the theory of political institutions and the hierarchy of institutions hypothesis (HIH) refer to the role of political institutions as ultimate institutions that determine and affect other institutions, such as economic and regulatory, and their critical impact on economic and banking performance. To investigate the relationship between institutions and banking, this study first identifies the theoretical differences between conventional and Islamic institutions; theoretical relationships between institutions and banking sectors; and the existing research performance on this topic using a systematic literature review method. Second, it empirically examines the impact of institutional environments, including political, economic, regulatory, and Islamic institutions, on bank efficiency. By conducting a panel regression analysis with a sample of 594 banks in 18 countries from 2005 to 2020, this study ascertains the connection between institutions and bank efficiency. Finally, it explores the association of institutional environments and bank liquidity creation. To achieve this aim, this study employs a crosscountry analysis of 584 banks from 18 countries from 2000 to 2020. This study offers several interesting results. First, although Islamic institutions share common aspects with conventional institutions, such as the acknowledgement of democratic values in society, they have distinct and additional institutional features. For instance, aspects such as definition, features, elements, and requirements differ in Islamic views from the conventional ones because of their sources and purposes. Consequently, the Islamic perspective on democracy is derived from the ultimate religious sources of Islam. Second, while there have been clear theoretical relationships between political, economic, and regulatory institutions and banking performance, empirical research on this issue has not been conducted well in the conventional and Islamic banking literature. Third, by means of a quantitative methodology, this study finds that political institutions positively affect both bank efficiency and liquidity creation. Fourthly, the impact of economic and regulatory institutions varies according to the presence of high-quality political institutions. This result empirically reinforces the theory of the hierarchy of institutions hypothesis (HIH) by confirming the vital and ultimate role of political institutions and their binding effect on bank performance. Finally, this study findsthat Islamic institutions positively influence Islamic bank efficiency and liquidity creation. This result empirically supports the theory of political economy and new institutional economics, which stresses the role of proper institutional environments

Understanding the Importance of Visual Merchandising on Store Image and Shopper Behaviours in Home Furnishings Retail Setting

The present study attempts to identify the important visual merchandising factors and examine the relationships of those factors with store images and shopper behaviours in the context of home furnishings retail setting. Factor analysis was employed to identify dimensions of the importance of visual merchandising and correlation analyses were implemented to examine the relationships among the variables in this study. Of four store image dimensions, Store Environment was significantly related to Layout/Organization and Creative/Inspirational Coordination factors of visual merchandising. New Style/Trend Information aspect of store image was significantly related to Window/Merchandise Display and Creative/Inspirational Coordination of visual merchandising factors. Merchandise Assortment construct of store image was significantly related to Layout/Organization and Creative/Inspirational Coordination aspects of visual merchandising. Appealing Exhibition dimension of store image was significantly related to Layout/Organization and Creative/Inspirational Coordination aspects of visual merchandising. Among five constructs, creative/inspirational coordination of the store was significantly and positively related to visit frequency. However, none of the importance of visual merchandising constructs was correlated to either amount of time spent shopping or the number of items purchased at one time shopping at home furnishings store. Based on the findings of the study, discussions and implications were provided. Key words: home furnishings retail store, visual merchandising, store image, shopper behaviours

The Use of Middle School Atlases in the Social Studies Classroom in South Korea

Middle school atlases are supplementary textbooks for social studies learning in South Korea. Although atlases are developed and designed to provide various useful resources for students’ social studies learning, especially geography, atlases have not been frequently used in actual social studies classrooms, and sometimes they are never used. This study reports the causes of low adoption rates of middle school atlases in Korean social studies classrooms through the analysis of survey responses from both teachers and students. This study also addresses ways of increasing the use of atlases in the classroom

Korean Immigrant Women's Taekyo Practices in the United States as a Traditional Prenatal Self-care

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore preserved belief system supporting Korean immigrant women's Taekyo practices and influencing factors while they observe the tradition within US sociocultural context. METHODS: Leininger's exploratory focused ethnographic approach was used. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with purposive sample of sixteen Korean immigrant women who gave birth in the US within last 6 months. Researcher's observation and reflective field notes were also integrated into the interview data. Leininger and McFarland's four phases of ethnographic analysis guided data analysis process. RESULTS: The perceived belief system supporting Taekyo practices included Taekyo as an enculturated Korean tradition, connecting parents with fetus, and positive impacts on fetal development. And Korean immigrant women's Taekyo practices were influenced by resources of information, woman's orientation toward Taekyo, pressure from local Korean community, and child order. CONCLUSION: The findings from this research would serve as an important knowledge base to expand US health care providers' understanding of Korean traditional Taekyo practices observed by Korean immigrant women's as important prenatal self-care practices. The findings could also aid in providing more patient-centered and culturally-tailored prenatal care plan to Korean immigrant by including Korean traditional belief system supporting Taekyo practices

The effects of motivation and progress framing on goal pursuit

Will different progress types of reports lead to goal commitment or digression? Does progress feedback focused on past progress, such as, "you have completed 50%" affect behavior differently than feedback focused on what remains to be done, such as, "you have 50% remaining"? People can feel achievement and discontinue goal pursuit when one step toward a goal is perceived as progress, not as commitment (Fishbach & Dhar, 2005). The primary goal of this research was to examine whether the extent to which people engage in goal-consistent activities after receiving different types of progress information depends on the nature of their motivation. The study employed a 2 (Motivation: Intrinsic/ Extrinsic) × 2 (Progress Framing: To-Date/ To-Go) between-participants experimental design. The results showed that participants who were given the different motivational components were similar in their choice and persistence. Motivation affected performance, such that extrinsically motivated participants performed better than intrinsically motivated participants. There was a main effect of progress framing on perceived pressure and on negative mood, such that participants exposed to a "to-go" progress message felt more anxiety and more negative mood. The implications of these findings and the direction of future studies are discussed

Diffusive logistic equation with non-linear boundary conditions

AbstractWe analyze the solutions of a population model with diffusion and logistic growth. In particular, we focus our study on a population living in a patch, Ω⊆Rn with n⩾1, that satisfies a certain non-linear boundary condition and on its survival when constant yield harvesting is introduced. We establish our existence results by the method of sub-super solutions