Abraham Accords: A Journey from Arab-Israeli to Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

The western hype over Abraham Accords is evident from their exploitation of the overused phrase “historical moment” in international relations. A shift in Arab-Israeli relations has been stamped with the signing of Abraham Accords, whereby the Arab veto over the recognition of the Palestinian state, in return for Israeli recognition, is practically over. The unexpected shift of alliances in Middle East have defined new battle lines. Israel has joined forces with UAE, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia – against perhaps Iran and Turkey. Despite the commitment to halt further settlements, Palestine is the ultimate victim. The two-state solution, in spirit, is all but buried. Comprehensive peace processes are multi-level and multi-layered and involve pragmatic efforts to build the widest consensus possible around a shared future. However, Abraham Accords lacks just that; it is both elitist and imposed. The paper is an attempt to explore the changing ground realities by exploring both history and the contemporary scenario. It examines both long-term and short-term impact of the accords on the stakeholders and the regional players.

Lagged Effect of Macroeconomic Variables on Stock Returns: A Case of Firm Size

The evidence of lagged effect regarding firm size between macroeconomic factors and stock returns is found with GARCH model for the UAE firms. More precisely, exchange rate showed a significant effect on stock returns irrespective of size group and lag level. However, a positive effect is observed at lag four and a negative effect is observed on lag five and two for small and large size firms respectively. For majority of the firms in small size, the risk-free rate showed a negative lagged effect on stock returns; however, for the majority of the firms in large size, it showed a positive lagged effect on stock returns. Inflation also showed a significant effect on stock returns on each lag level except for large firms where at lag five it is insignificant. Moreover, as the lags increase from 1- 4 and size from small to large, the negative effect of inflation converts to positive effect on stock returns. The lag effect of real activity showed both positive and negative effects on relatively larger stock returns of small firms than big firms. Money supply showed positive significant effect on stock returns of all firms irrespective of the size group; however, this relationship is even more prominent at lag five. Finally, the oil prices showed a positive effect on stock returns (large size) which further maximizes at lag two; whereas, a negative maximization takes place at lag three. Hence, investors can make informed and effective decisions and UAE policymakers developed effective measures to control and promote macroeconomic growth and stability.

Role of Business Intelligence in Banking Sector for Achieving Competitive Advantage- An Empirical Analysis

With recent advancements in information technology, organizations’ capability to acquire and analyze data for efficient decision making has increased. Good strategies promote alignment among processes and technology in use, which may result in better firm performance. However, there has been little focus on how firm strategies and business intelligence (BI) systems might play their part in forming organizational information and getting a competitive edge. Therefore, the purpose of conducting this study is to investigate the impact of firm strategy on firm competitive advantage with mediating role of BI adoption and moderating role of BI capabilities. For this, a quantitative research methodology was used, and data was collected from 300 middle-level managers in Pakistan's telecom sector. Statistical tests such as descriptive statistics, correlation, reliability analysis, one-way ANOVA, confirmatory factor analysis, and mediation analysis through Hayes process were performed using SPSS and AMOS. The findings revealed a positive link between firm strategy and competitive advantage, with business intelligence adoption serving as a mediating factor. Business intelligence capabilities positively moderate the relationship between BI adoption and competitive advantage. Hence, all proposed hypotheses (H1, H2, and H3) were approved. The contribution and Limitation of the study are also discussed.

Impact of Perceived Organizational Support and Psychological Capital on Organizational Commitment among University’s Employees

The aim of this study was to find out the impact of perceived organizational support and psychological capital on organizational commitment among university’s employees. The target population for this study was the employees of the Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Agriculture Multan, Pakistan (MNSUAM). The study was based on a correlational research design, and total of 128 employees were sampled through a simple random sampling technique. Survey method was used for data collection. The instruments used for data collection included the Perceived Organizational Support Scale (POSS) Psychological Capital Questionnaire and Organizational Commitment Questionnaire The data was collected from 128 employees analyzed through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The results of this study revealed a significant correlation between dependent and independent variables. The regression analysis indicated significant impact of perceived organizational support on organizational commitment. Further, it was also indicated a significant impact of psychological capital on organizational commitment among university employees. No significant gender differences were found in terms of perceived organizational support and psychological capital and organizational commitment. However, the results indicated a difference in Job status in terms of perceived organizational support. The findings of this study suggest a significant role of study variables which would be helpful to conduct future studies in the area of public management, psychology, and more particularly, organizational psychology. Moreover, this study is also useful for designing an encouraging and supportive organizational environment for employees.

Financial Literacy and Financial Satisfaction: A Moderated Mediation Analysis of Self-Esteem and Financial Behavior

Recent studies suggest that domain-specific behavior contributes to domain-specific satisfaction. It is believed that finance-specific literacy brings positive financial behavior and healthy financial behavior further contributes to financial satisfaction. In general, this study has been undertaken to examine the effect of financial literacy on financial behavior and financial satisfaction. Data have been collected from 326 participants by using a self-administered questionnaire. Linear regression has been applied to test the hypotheses, while Preacher and Hayes method has been used to estimate the moderation and mediation effect. There is less knowledge about the mechanism that may clarify the link between financial literacy and level of financial satisfaction. This paper is the first of its kind in Pakistan to investigate the relationship between financial literacy and individual’s financial satisfaction with intervening role of financial behavior and moderating role of self-esteem. Study findings reveal that financial literacy is significantly related to both financial behavior and financial satisfaction. Further it is also observed that financial behavior plays intervening role in the relationship between financial literacy and financial satisfaction. Findings also reveal that self-esteem does not affect the link between financial behavior of individuals and financial literacy. This study provides several significant implications for individuals, organizations, academicians and policy makers, in the sense that increasing financial literacy is essential to form positive and healthy financial behavior which ultimately increases individual’s financial satisfaction with financial situation.

Liquidity Risk and Asset Pricing in Pakistan Stock Exchange

This paper empirically investigates the impact of liquidity risk on stock returns in Pakistan and determines investors' attitude under bull and bear market conditions. Specifically, the liquidity adjusted capital asset pricing model(CAPM) is modified by including the interaction between the liquidity risk and the indicators of bull- and bear-market periods to investigate whether the pricing of liquidity risk differs in both upward and downward market trends. The analysis is carried out for a large panel of Pakistani manufacturing firms listed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange for the period January 2000 – December 2015. We use alternative liquidity risk measures to check the robustness of the liquidity risk effect. We observe that higher liquidity risk yields higher excess stock returns, implying pricing of liquidity risk during the examined period. The results also reveal that the liquidity risk is positively and significantly related to excess returns in the high-liquidity-risk beta portfolios, whereas it is negatively or insignificantly related to excess returns of low-liquidity-risk beta portfolios. The results also provide evidence that stocks affected by liquidity risk yield positive expected returns in both bull and bear market conditions. However, we find significant differences in the pricing of liquidity risk under upward and downward market trends. The robustness check confirms that the findings on the pricing of liquidity risk are not driven by any specific measure of liquidity.

Value Investment Strategies and Asset Pricing: A Case of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX)

The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) measures only a linear relationship between the Risk and the Return. However, market dynamics and anomalies calls for understanding the relationship in between risk and return from non-linear perspective. Thus, current study explores an opportunity to study asset value anomalies by Constructing Decile Portfolio for the period starting from 2001 to 2018 with 900 firms listed. GMM (Generalized method of moment and Wald test are applied to see the robustness of results. For further analysis, Risk Adjusted CAPM, Fama French 3 Factor (FF3) and 5 Factor (FF5) are applied. Empirical results indicate that value effect and debt to equity ratio are essential factors and genuinely explain what CAPM fails to explain. The findings from the study recommend that investing in High value and high leverage firm will generate abnormal returns to investors. Taking long position in high value firm and short position in low value firms and same with debt to equity anomaly. The results will help financial analyst develop investment strategies for well diversified and efficient portfolios. These results can also be helpful to financial firm and security analyst in the financial market where they can take appropriate capital budget decisions while investing.

Determining the Real Exchange Rate Equilibrium for Pakistan

The achievement of macroeconomic stability and sustained economic growth are the main targets of macroeconomic agents and policymakers. High volatility in Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER) is noticed while moving towards flexible Exchange rate regime. Three assessment methodologies are followed in the paper i.e. PPP approach, PPP approach adjusted for Penn effect and reduced form equation approach to gauge REER misalignment. VAR modelling suggest that, PPP holds for Pakistan and Penn effect is witnessed in the country for FY1980-FY12018. The determinants of REER, like “openness to GDP ratio, Govt consumption to GDP ratio, Long term Investment to GDP ratio, relative productivity and terms of trade” are responsible for depreciation in REER. While, worker remittances and FDI leads towards the REER appreciation in. It is indispensable to opt for the devaluation of PKR to gain export competitiveness, which may result in shrinkage of current account deficit. To increase the productivity of tradable items and to reduce the GOVT consumption of imported items are few steps to push REER towards equilibrium level. As per the state of art model the range of misalignment in REER is from -3.9% to 4.2% in Pakistan.

Leadership Driven Job Crafting: Exploring the Mediating Role of Meaningfulness between Servant Leadership and Job Crafting

The current study was undertaken to ascertain the mediating role of meaningfulness linking servant leadership (SL) to employees’ job crafting behavior (JCB). The study also endeavors to find the association between meaningfulness and JCB. This study collected data from 689 service sector employees through survey design. Data were processed and analyzed through PLS-SMART and SPSS mainly. The findings manifested a relation between meaningfulness and employees' job crafting behavior.Similarly, SL significantly impacted both meaningfulness and employees’ job crafting behavior. The results also unraveled the mediating role of meaningfulness between SL and JCB of the employees. The research has ascertained the previously unexplored mediating role of meaningfulness between SL and JCB. It is also the first study that attempted to explore meaningfulness as a stimulus to job crafting behavior.

Too Much Choice and Consumer Decision Making: The Moderating Role of Consumer Involvement

The study attempts to explore the choice available for grocery consumers and its impact on decision-making. The study's design includes the consumer's personal involvement towards the purchase, the emotions, and subsequent satisfaction. For a moderated-mediation model, the data set of 401 respondents were finalized to test the measurement and structural models. The research has established that it is not necessary that consumers are always happy when they have more choices available. Further, it was also established that involvement has a role to play in the emotions which lead to purchasing intentions. The involvement perspective in the model makes this study unique because the part of consumer involvement as a moderator to choices and emotions has not been studied before extensively. The manufacturers must determine the array of choices because producing variety does not always generate more revenues in this part of the world. The study opens new avenues for the researchers to dig into the details and identify consumer behaviors when various choices for consumers are available.