Does state ownership really matter for capital structure in selected G-20 economies?

The effect of state ownership on the capital structure decisions of enterprises in selected G-20 countries is estimated using financial and accounting data of 252 state-owned and 6503 non-state- owned firms for the period 2011–2015. The results indicate that state ownership is positively associated with leverage in all the selected G-20 countries. However, this phenomenon changed when countries were considered according to their income levels because state-owned enterprises in high-income countries carry more debt, while the opposite is true for lower-middle-income countries. The results were also divergent when the effects of various firm-specific variables were compared between state and non-state-owned enterprises across the development spectrum

Role of Corporate Social Responsibility in Corporate Reputation via Organizational Trust and Commitment

Purpose: The conceptual framework based on a comprehensive literature review hypothesized that the perceived CSR of an organization may lead to the development of trust and commitment among the employees, which in turn may lead to the building of the corporate reputation of the organization. Along with that, the moderating effects of HRM practices and organizational justice have also been investigated in the given relationship of corporate social responsibility (CSR) with its given mediators i.e., “organizational trust” and “organizational commitment”. Methodology: The target population of the study was comprised of the management and teaching faculty of educational institutions. The random sampling technique was employed to carry out an empirical study of 380 samples of employees. The data collected were analyzed by using the Smart PLS 3 software. The model was tested, and all the hypotheses were accepted. Findings: A positive relationship has been observed between CSR investments and corporate reputation. Furthermore, empirical results show that the employee’s commitment and the level of trust towards the organization serve as partial mediators between CSR practices and corporate reputation. The results showed that all of the hypotheses were accepted. Conclusion: This study is intuitive and empirically substantiates the selection of organizational justice and HRM practices as moderating variables between the observed CSR activities and its given mediators

Industry 4.0 or Pharma 4.0?

This chapter examines the convergence of Industry 4.0 and Pharma 4.0 in the context of healthcare supply chains. It investigates the potential applications of these industrial revolutions to enhance the flexibility, benefits, challenges, and opportunities of healthcare supply chains. This chapter highlights the application of state-of-the-art technology to create intelligent, adaptable, and personalized supply chain systems for the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. The literature on “Pharma Industry 4.0” is reviewed, with a focus on the opportunities for sustainable value creation and pharmaceutical supply chain research. Healthcare supply chain has some serious issues like counterfeit drugs, non-transparent supply chain, unfear track and trace system of medicines and biomedical instruments. The authors identified the potential solutions for these issues with the help of current innovative technologies and practices

Systematic review of polyherbal combinations used in metabolic syndrome

Background: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a multifactorial disease, whose main stay of prevention and management is life-style modification which is difficult to attain. Combination of herbs have proven more efficacious in multi-targeted diseases, as compared to individual herbs owing to the effect enhancing and side-effect neutralizing properties of herbs, which forms the basis of polyherbal therapies This led us to review literature on the efficacy of herbal combinations in MetS. Methods: Electronic search of literature was conducted by using Cinnahl, Pubmed central, Cochrane and Web of Science, whereas, Google scholar was used as secondary search tool. The key words used were metabolic syndrome, herbal/poly herbal, metabolic syndrome, clinical trial and the timings were limited between 2005-2020. Results: After filtering and removing duplications by using PRISMA guidelines, search results were limited to 41 studies, out of which 24 studies were evaluated for combinations used in animal models and 15 in clinical trials related to metabolic syndrome. SPICE and SPIDER models were used to assess the clinical trials, whereas, a checklist and a qualitative and a semi-quantitative questionnaire was formulated to report the findings for animal based studies. Taxonomic classification of Poly herbal combinations used in animal and clinical studies was designed. Conclusion: With this study we have identified the potential polyherbal combinations along with a proposed method to validate animal studies through systematic qualitative and quantitative review. This will help researchers to study various herbal combinations in MetS, in the drug development process and will give a future direction to research on prevention and management of MetS through polyherbal combinations

Proxy Signcrypion Scheme Based on Hyper Elliptic Curves

Delegation of rights is promising in Internet applications like distributed computing, e-cash systems, global distribution networks, grid computing, mobile agent applications, and mobile communications. This paper presents a novel Proxy Signcrypion Scheme based on hyper elliptic curves, attractive for resource constrained environment due to its shorter key size. It has properties of warrant integrity, message integrity, message confidentiality, warrant unforgeability, message unforgeability, proxy non repudiation and public verifiability. The proposed scheme has reduced computational cost as compared to the other existing schemes

Tracking graduates of AKU-IED’s MEd programme: The classes of 1999, 2000 and 2002

In each of the years 1997, 1998 and 2000 a new cohort of course participants joined the two-year MEd programme at the Aga Khan University’s Institute for Educational Development in Karachi, Pakistan (AKU-IED). Some two years later 87 or 92% of the entrants graduated from the programme and returned to their respective employers or systems. This paper focuses on the employment of and roles played by these 87 ‘completing’ course participants before they entered and then after they exited from the AKU-IED MEd programme. The paper is based on interviews with the 87 graduates carried out some one year and some two years after programme completion for two of the cohorts and some eight/nine months after completion for the most recently graduated cohort. The paper charts changes in numbers in such categories as School-based educators (e.g. teachers; head teachers) and Non-school-based educators (e.g. teacher educators; university teachers) and asks whether these numbers appear to be affected by the regional and system background of graduates; their roles at entry to the programme and length of time since programme graduation. Discussion is focused on issues related to ‘flight from the classroom’ and on the need to acknowledge complexity in the design and execution of studies of programme impact