Bubble identification in the emerging economy fuel price series: : Evidence from a generalized sup augmented Dickey–Fuller test

n the recent past, the world in general and Pakistan in particular faced a drastic fuel price change, affecting the economic productivity of the country. This has drawn the attention of empirical researchers to analyze the abrupt change in fuel prices. This study takes a lead and investigates for the first time, in the literature related to Pakistan, the presence of multiple fuel price bubbles, with the purpose of knowing if the price driver is due to demand or it is exuberant consumer behavior that prevails and contributes to a sudden boom in fuel price series. The empirical analysis is performed through a recently proposed state-of-the-art generalized sup ADF (GSADF) approach on six commonly used fuel price series, namely, LDO (light diesel oil), HSD (high-speed diesel), petrol, natural gas, kerosene, and MS (motor spirit). The bubble analysis for each of the six fuel price series is based on monthly data from July 2005 to August 2020. The findings provide evidence of the existence of multiple bubbles in all series considered. Specifically, four bubbles are detected in each of the kerosene and natural gas price series, whereas three bubbles are noted in each of the HSD, LDO, petrol and MS price series. The maximum duration of occurrence of bubbles is of 12 months for kerosene. The date-stamping of the bubbles shows that the financial crisis of 2008 contributed to the emergence of bubbles that pushed oil prices upward and caused a depreciation in the national currency.Peer reviewe

Customers' preferences in selecting Islamic banks in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries

The present study aim to investigate relationship between religion, higher profitability on investment, sharia board audit, services (faster/friendly), bank reputation, product and service quality and to know which variable more influence in selecting Islamic banks in GCC countries. The study adopted convenience sampling. 101 completed questionnaires were chosen for analysis. The study found that there is no relationship in between consumer preferences and higher profitability on investment, services (faster/friendly), bank reputation, but there is, however, a significant relation with regards to religion, sharia board audit and product and service quality and paper provide fresh insights to the Islamic banks and recommendations, study implications, future research possibilities also discussed

Does Corporate Social Responsibility Impact on Corporate Risk-Taking? Evidence from Emerging Economy

This study analyzes the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) fulfillment on corporate risk-taking to assist stakeholders in identifying the “double-edged sword” role of CSR activities and provide empirical evidence for enterprises to properly carry out CSR activities. The results show that the self-interest instrumentalization of CSR activities intensifies agency conflict, and CSR fulfillment weakens risk-taking to a certain extent. When CSR fulfillment reaches a certain value, CSR activities can improve risk-taking. Then, CSR fulfillment and risk-taking show a U-shaped relationship. Further analysis shows that the impacts of CSR on debt financing and R&D input reflect the U-shaped effect pathways of CSR fulfillment on risk-taking. Finally, it is suggested that CSR activities should be avoided to become the “self-interest tool” of the management. The regulators guide enterprises to break through the inflection point of the U-shaped effect and consider more for the stakeholders’ overall interests. Additionally, the regulators establish an effective compensation system to ensure that the enterprises with adequate CSR fulfillment obtain high-quality capital resources and promote the sustainable development of the capital market

Does Corporate Social Responsibility Impact on Corporate Risk-Taking? Evidence from Emerging Economy

This study analyzes the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) fulfillment on corporate risk-taking to assist stakeholders in identifying the “double-edged sword” role of CSR activities and provide empirical evidence for enterprises to properly carry out CSR activities. The results show that the self-interest instrumentalization of CSR activities intensifies agency conflict, and CSR fulfillment weakens risk-taking to a certain extent. When CSR fulfillment reaches a certain value, CSR activities can improve risk-taking. Then, CSR fulfillment and risk-taking show a U-shaped relationship. Further analysis shows that the impacts of CSR on debt financing and R&D input reflect the U-shaped effect pathways of CSR fulfillment on risk-taking. Finally, it is suggested that CSR activities should be avoided to become the “self-interest tool” of the management. The regulators guide enterprises to break through the inflection point of the U-shaped effect and consider more for the stakeholders’ overall interests. Additionally, the regulators establish an effective compensation system to ensure that the enterprises with adequate CSR fulfillment obtain high-quality capital resources and promote the sustainable development of the capital market

Determining Financial Uncertainty through the Dynamics of Sukuk Bonds and Prices in Emerging Market Indices

The main focus of the study is to determine the financial uncertainty while examining the Sukuk bonds prices, Sukuk bond and global emerging market indices returns dynamics. The study, with a time period ranging from 2017 to 2020, applies the quantile regression technique. The study findings show that evidence of co-moment exists between the global emerging market index and Sukuk bond price returns, except the one. There is no impact of the financial uncertainty indicator reflected by the global volatility index (VIX) on the Sukuk index returns, and even this impact is negative for (VXEEM). The causal impact among the global emerging and Sukuk bond markets will help formulate future trading strategies in particular to Islamic bond markets

Prioritizing eLearning Platform Requirements Using AHP

The distinctive growth in the use of eLearning during the COVID-19 pandemic motivated the higher education institutions to search the appropriate platform to ensure the quality of their teaching and learning process during and post-pandemic period. This paper aims to rank the features of the eLearning platform and assign a relative weight for each feature as per the stakeholders’ preference. The stakeholders interested in the eLearning platform include the students, Instructors, ICT experts, and senior management of higher education institutions. The set of eighteen features related to the eLearning platform was the subject of pairwise comparison to achieve the objective of the study. Four sets of questionnaires have been used to collect data from the stakeholders in higher education institutions in Bahrain. This study collected 140 responses from the different stakeholders. The AHP approach has been used to rank the features as per the stakeholders’ preferences. Based on the experts’ judgment, the findings illustrate the importance of three features, namely: security, ease of use, and friendly interface of the platform. The relative weight of these features is around 35%. For further studies, the extension of this research to cover the features of the blended learning approach which could be the new model of teaching in higher education post-COVID-19. &nbsp