Predilection or Prediction? Country Selection for the President's Daily Intelligence Brief, 1961–1977

A study of the daily briefings of US presidents by the intelligence community offers a useful test of whether governments can surmount intragovernmental influences in the acquisition and processing of information. A finding that the briefs somehow anticipate events would suggest that governments—their leaders and organizations—rise above political incentives and institutional practices to approach the rationality that realist and liberal scholars attribute to states. This study, thus, examines which countries appear in (the now declassified) daily intelligence briefs of the 1961–(January)1977 period, covering the Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford years. It not only finds evidence that the selection of countries for the briefs favors countries referenced in prior briefs (per the foreign-policy literature) but also finds significant evidence that the appearance of countries, in the briefs, anticipates their increased activity in the period to follow (per a rational model).

Country selection and aid allocation: A case of the Czech Republic

Research background: Donors provide development aid from various reasons: while some of them might give aid based on the recipient´s needs, some countries pursue their own agendas with their development programmes. Visegrad Group countries are mostly considered as egoistic donors that try to support security in the East European region and promote their trade. Purpose of the article: This article draws back on the existing literature that focused on the motives behind the Czech development aid and examines influence of both egoistic and altruistic variables to determine which of these variables are important for the selection of countries to the aid portfolio and the allocation of aid funds. The researched variables are: number of asylum seekers, debt to the Czech Republic, Czech exports, unemployment in the developing countries, political and civil rights, and enrolment to the secondary education. Methods: Probit-tobit analysis and a generalized linear model are employed in this paper. Findings & Value added: The results suggest that egoistic economic motives (debt and Czech exports) are important factors for both country selection and aid allocation, while the number of asylum seekers affects only the aid allocation. As per the altruistic reasons, the country selection depends on the unemployment rates, political and civil rights and the enrolment to secondary education. The aid allocation depends also on the unemployment rates, political and civil rights, and the ratio of girls enrolled to the secondary education.

The determinants of Muslim travellers’ intention to visit non-Islamic countries: a halal tourism implication

Purpose Many non-Islamic countries are approaching halal tourism as the tourism strategy. However, studies examining Muslims’ attitudes and intentions to visit non-Islamic countries remain scarce. The purpose of this study is to test what factors influence Muslims’ intention to visit non-Islamic countries by considering their perception of halal risk and Islamic value of non-Islamic country destinations. Design/methodology/approach By distributing questionnaires to Muslim respondents, in total, this study collected 436 respondents. The hypotheses are tested using a structural equation modeling approach. Findings Results revealed that religiosity significantly affects perceived risk, but it does not have an effect on perceived Islamic values and attitude. It is also found that Muslims’ intention to visit non-Islamic countries are mainly influenced by their attitudes. Perceived halal risk and Islamic value strongly affected their attitudes toward non-Islamic countries. Interestingly, the results show that Muslims’ intention to visit non-Islamic countries is not directly influenced by perceived halal risk and Islamic value but indirectly through attitudes. Research limitations/implications The equal distribution of respondents becomes the main challenge to achieve. It cannot be controlled by researchers. Thus, the disproportionate respondents’ distribution in terms of age, gender, occupation and, most importantly, the country selection becomes the limitation of this study. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature by evaluating perceived Islamic value and perceived halal risks in influencing Muslims’ intention to visit non-Islamic country destinations.

Cross-border mergers and acquisitions: links between acquiring firm capabilities and resources and target country location

Purpose Drawing upon the eclectic paradigm and the regulative dimension of institutional distance theory, it is posited that to understand a firms’ cross-border merger and acquisition (CBMA) location choices, it is critical to examine the acquirers’ ownership advantages. Design/methodology/approach Using a sample of CBMAs undertaken by US firms from 1999 to 2015, the paper explores the extent to which acquiring firm ownership advantages – financial and innovation capabilities – influence target firm country selection in relation to regulative distance. Findings It is shown that acquiring firms with greater innovative capabilities are likely to choose target firms in nations with less regulative distance from their home market; whereas firms with greater financial capabilities target firms in more distant nations. Originality/value This paper builds on the important research on CBMA activity, focusing on the largely neglected pre-acquisition resources in relation to the regulative distance between target firms and the acquirer.

Determinants of financial instruments risk disclosure: An empirical analysis in the banking sector

This study investigates the effects of firm and country factors, considered as determinants of the financial instruments risk disclosure (FIRD) proxied by IFRS 7 in the European banking system. We select 582 banks-year observations based on the largest five European economies (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK) as provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Our analysis covers a period of 8 years (2007-2014) and adopts an OLS model. Results show that both firm (the type of auditor, board size and profitability) and country factors (financing environment, regulatory environment, and organizational status) affect FIRD. Limitations for this paper could relate to country selection, as well as on the breadth of the sample. Nevertheless, these aspects could unveil possible areas of future inquiry. The contribution of the study is twofold. It enriches the literature about firm and country determinants on financial instruments risk disclosure, as combined rather than single-standing variables. Yet, it draws the attention of banks’ management and investors on what the crucial factors to reach an optimal level of FIRD are and gain the confidence of capital markets, reducing information asymmetries. This is the first empirical investigation on the determinants of FIRD, using IFRS 7, in the European banking sector that adopts firm and country factors in a combined effort.