The Influence of COVID-19 on Entrepreneur's Psychological Well-Being

This research focuses on the influence of COVID-19 on entrepreneurs' psychological well-being (PWB) in China. A start-up's performance is believed to play an important moderating role. This study uses 2 years of tracking data of 303 entrepreneurs from Shandong Providence, China. Based on conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study found that COVID-19 will significantly decrease entrepreneurs' PWB. A start-up's past performance will enhance the negative influence of COVID-19 on entrepreneurs' PWB. This study contributes to the literature on entrepreneurship, COR, and PWB. The findings can also guide entrepreneurs to maintain well-being during the pandemic and post-pandemic era.

Stock derivatives and seasoned equity offerings

PurposeThe article aims to explore if stock derivative types (stock options and stock warrants) are associated with stock returns for firms undergoing seasoned equity offerings (SEOs).Design/methodology/approachThe authors regress stock returns against stock derivatives for periods around SEO announcements with standard errors clustered at the month level.FindingsThe authors find that lower stock derivatives holdings for the fiscal year after the SEO are associated with superior pre-SEO returns. This can be explained by owners exercising their derivatives to capitalize on the pre-SEO price run-up. The authors find that greater stock option holdings by insiders for the fiscal year after the SEO are associated with superior post-SEO returns for up to ten years after the SEO announcement. This new finding does not hold for stock warrants.Research limitations/implicationsStock derivatives are supplied by Capital IQ. Given their description, the authors infer that stock options are owned largely by insiders. Thus, the insider conclusions for stock options depend on this implication.Practical implicationsStock options and stock warrants can be used strategically to reward stock derivative owners of strong performing firms for past performance. Stock options can be used to motivate insiders (primarily key executives) to achieve superior future performance.Originality/valueThis study is unique in comparing the influence of holdings for stock options and stock warrants on stock price performance around SEOs. The authors show that the sign of the association depends on whether the test includes pre-SEO periods.

Phish Derby: Shoring the Human Shield Through Gamified Phishing Attacks

To better understand employees’ reporting behaviors in relation to phishing emails, we gamified the phishing security awareness training process by creating and conducting a month-long “Phish Derby” competition at a large university in the U.S. The university’s Information Security Office challenged employees to prove they could detect phishing emails as part of the simulated phishing program currently in place. Employees volunteered to compete for prizes during this special event and were instructed to report suspicious emails as potential phishing attacks. Prior to the beginning of the competition, we collected demographics and data related to the concepts central to two theoretical foundations: the Big Five personality traits and goal orientation theory. We found several notable relationships between demographic variables and Phish Derby performance, which was operationalized from the number of phishing attacks reported and employee report speed. Several key findings emerged, including past performance on simulated phishing campaigns positively predicted Phish Derby performance; older participants performed better than their younger colleagues, but more educated participants performed poorer; and individuals who used a mix of PCs and Macs at work performed worse than those using a single platform. We also found that two of the Big Five personality dimensions, extraversion and agreeableness, were both associated with poorer performance in phishing detection and reporting. Likewise, individuals who were driven to perform well in the Phish Derby because they desired to learn from the experience (i.e., learning goal orientation) performed at a lower level than those driven by other goals. Interestingly, self-reported levels of computer skill and the perceived ability to detect phishing messages failed to exhibit a significant relationship with Phish Derby performance. We discuss these findings and describe how focusing on motivating the good in employee cyber behaviors is a necessary yet too often overlooked component in organizations whose training cyber cultures are rooted in employee click rates alone.

Victorious and Hierarchical: Past Performance as a Determinant of Team Hierarchical Differentiation

Hierarchies emerge as collectives attempt to organize themselves toward successful performance. Consequently, research has focused on how team hierarchies affect performance. We extend existing models of the hierarchy-performance relationship by adopting an alternative: Performance is not only an output of hierarchy but also a critical input, as teams’ hierarchical differentiation may vary based on whether they are succeeding. Integrating research on exploitation and exploration with work on group attributions, we argue that teams engage in exploitation by committing to what they attribute as the cause of their performance success. Specifically, collectives tend to attribute their success to individuals who wielded greater influence within the team; these individuals are consequently granted relatively higher levels of influence, leading to a higher degree of hierarchy. We additionally suggest that the tendency to attribute, and therefore grant more influence, to members believed to be the cause of success is stronger for teams previously higher (versus lower) in hierarchy, as a higher degree of hierarchical differentiation provides clarity as to which members had a greater impact on the team outcome. We test our hypotheses experimentally with teams engaging in an online judgement task and observationally with teams from the National Basketball Association. Our work makes two primary contributions: (a) altering existing hierarchy-performance models by highlighting performance as both an input and output to hierarchy and (b) extending research on the dynamics of hierarchy beyond individual rank changes toward examining what factors increase or decrease hierarchical differentiation of the team as a whole.

A model proposal for estimating banks’ future value: Evidence from Turkey

Investors make solid decisions when evaluating their investments based on positive indicators the firm may show in the future, rather than based on its past performance. Accordingly, this study aims to investigate the relationship between performance criteria and the most significant value-based criterion; Economic Value Added (EVA). Further, it evaluates the impact of future EVA values on the bank value. Panel Data Analysis and the OLS Regression model are used to estimate the regression equation. The analysis is performed using data of 10 banks on the BIST Banks Index over the period 2011 to 2020. Furthermore, the EVA criterion was converted into standardized EVA(SEVA) by dividing EVA by total assets. The OLS regression analysis results revealed that the model’s explanatory power for the SEVA variable is 71.92%. The three variables that have positive correlation with SEVA are earnings per share (EPS) and TOBINQ rates at the 1% significance level and the price to sales growth rate with a degree of significance at 10%. Regarding the Panel Data Analysis results, while the explanatory power of the SEVA variable is 72.14%, its association with the EPS and TOBINQ criteria was found to be significant at the 1% significance level. The empirical investigations reveal that the model developed using the future SEVA as a proxy for bank value is found to be promising, and it is accepted that the SEVA variable can be used instead of the bank value.

Methodology of Effective Lateral Placement for Underbalanced Coiled Tubing Drilling Wells

This paper describes a methodology that has been developed to maximize lateral placement in productive reservoir intervals during underbalanced coiled tubing drilling (UBCTD) operations. UBCTD has emerged as an effective and economically viable development solution for exploiting reserves in mature gas reservoirs. In some cases, it can be a suitable solution to develop reserves in more geologically complex and heterogonous reservoirs over the conventional drilling and stimulation techniques. The methodology integrates big surface and subsurface data from multiple sources in multiple formats in real to near real-time that are normally acquired during UBCTD drilling operations. The multiple sources of data include subsurface geology, wellsite biosteering, reservoir influx, well testing and drilling, and can provide important information about the reservoirs encountered. With the aid of data analytics and an advanced visualization tool, the data is translated into in series of engineering plots that enable easier identification of productive intervals and more informed as well as efficient lateral placement decisions. This methodology has proven superior to the conventional instantaneous Productivity Index (PI) approach that is commonly used for UBCTD lateral placement. The methodology has been tested with good success in a number of recently drilled UBCTD wells in geologically complex depositional environments across carbonates and clastic reservoirs. Post flowback and pressure transient test analyses have shown significant improvement in the well deliver abilities and effective lateral lengths. Past performance from wells drilled using the PI method will be compared with wells drilled with this method.

Unexpected soil amplification effect on seismic performance of highway bridges during the Aegean earthquake of October 2020, Mw 6.6

On October 30, 2020, an earthquake about 70 km away from the city center of Izmir with a 4.3 million population has shaken the city tremendously and has resulted in destruction of many building type of structures due to an unexpected high soil-amplified vibrations very similar to the Mexico City earthquake in 1985. The bridges at the soil-amplified sites has performed in elastic range with no damage at all. In the city of Izmir, the 42 year old twin bridges located on the main transportation route, were tremendously shaken by the earthquake had observed to have no seismic induced damage. Surprisingly twin bridges suffering from the alkali silica reaction (ASR) over the years did not even pound to each other despite the small size of longitudinal gap between them. As it has been known, the past performance of Turkish designed bridges are typically succesfull with almost no damage as observed in the Van 2011 and Sivrice 2020 earthquake mainly due to allowing movements at their joints and to flexible type of framing. The focus of the paper is given to understand the successful performance of bridges and to investigate the non-pounded twin bridges of the Izmir city. In this scope, a bridge inspection has been performed and the twin bridges have been analyzed for the recorded ground motion. The results have indicated that the structures have been subjected to 0.3 g at their vibration modes and the twin bridges have a synchronized motion due to having the identical vibration mode shape with a period of 1.5 seconds

To Determine the Influence of Students’ Past Performance Component of Self-Efficacy on Examination Malpractices among Students in Kiambu County Universities Kenya

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible influence of students’ self-efficacy on examination malpractices among undergraduate students in Universities within Kiambu County. The objectives of this study includes; to analyze the influence of students’ past performance component of self-efficacy. The data collected from the pilot test was used to compute Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient which was found to be r = 0.86, hence the instruments were reliable. The researcher ensured the validity of the instruments by consulting peers and experts from the department of educational psychology, Mount Kenya University. Dependability of qualitative data was ensured through adoption of suitable research method, pre-testing and in-depth interviews. Credibility of the instrument was ensured by triangulating data obtained and creation of research questionnaires based on research objectives. The quantitative data obtained was analyzed using SPSS version 21, and was presented in descriptive statistics inform of frequencies and percentages. Inferential statistics in form of linear regression was used to test the relationship between independent and dependent variables in each objective. Linear Regression Results were presented in model summary tables, ANOVA tables and coefficient tables. Content analysis method was employed to critically analyze qualitative data and presented in textual form. On the first objective, the study revealed that students’ past performance slightly influenced examination malpractices among undergraduate students. The study showed that students’ emotional experiences significantly influenced examination malpractices. Based on the finding, students’ self-efficacy has significant influence on examination malpractices. To address the issue of students’ self-efficacy on examination malpractices, a multi-sectoral approach would be needed, that may involve all the stake holders, that is, the larger society, the government and the students. The incorporation of modern technology in entire process of examination administration and certification would be important in reducing the examination malpractices. An examination policy shift in universities would be necessary too.

Study on the Adoption of Safety Culture in Construction Project in Klang Valley

The high rate of accidents and injuries in the construction industry globally enables us to evaluate our priority from the past performance to the major determinants of safety and health. By giving attention to human factors, organisations can identify and differentiate potential hazards of reckless behaviour prior to the incidents of accidents or illness. One way to achieve this is to measure 'leading' safety factors, such as safety culture. The objectives of this research are identifying the ways to adopt and implement the suitable and efficiency safety culture for the construction project in Klang Valley to prevent the accidents and injuries in construction industry as well as to provide a safe working environment. We use quantitative method with close-ended questionnaire and descriptive design for this study. The questionnaires inquired on the issues and problems and success factors in implementing safety culture in construction project. The company selected for this study was limited and only focus on 10 construction companies in Klang Valley. The total of the respondents was 40. The quantitative analysis of data was done using Average Index Method and the data were analysed using descriptive analysis. From the study, the most popular problems to adapt and implementing safety culture are the poor safety culture. The success factors in implementing safety culture were safety rules and procedures that are provided and easy to understand. Overall, the workers perception of the safety culture around Klang Valley construction site was fairly low with need for improvement such as safety practices from management, encourage of safety motivation and training on safety and health. The results and outcomes of the research can be used to guide construction management in establishing a positive safety culture and provide workers with the opportunity to have a platform to reflect on their motivations and choices for safety at work.

Evolving Strategies for the Structuring of Working Capital Loans during Covid Times: An Analysis of Select Indian Private Sector Banks

Predicting human behavior is a difficult task, yet bankers perform this regularly while sanctioning working capital loans, so that money advanced is recoverable. For this, they try to assess credit worthiness of clients based on past performance through financials and banking habits amongst other parameters. Clients also look at fees and instalment burden, duration of loan, etc. However, with the adverse impact of Covid pandemic on earning capacities, banks need to relook at the way they structure loans. This study suggests that customer-focused, risk-adjusted analysis should be undertaken to reduce non-performing assets and improve asset portfolio quality of banks.