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This paper examines the impact that psychological reactance has on the COVID-19 adherence-related behavior and vaccine motivations of the residents of Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional, online survey was administered, and 604 usable responses were analyzed to discover the level of psychological reactance, and its impact on adherence to COVID-19 preventive measures and vaccine intentions. Results of the Kruskal–Wallis H test demonstrated statistically significant evidence (p < 0.05) of differences between the mean ranks for four out of seven key COVID-19 preventive measures studied, and four out of five items related to vaccine motivations, as a result of psychological reactance. These results suggest that while the majority of the population is adhering to COVID-19 preventive measures, for the subset of the population that are not fully compliant, psychological reactance is a significant factor in influencing behavior. Governments are, therefore, recommended to ensure that their public health messages are autonomy supporting, and take into consideration psychological and personality-based differences in individuals.

"This book analyses the strategic and economic significance of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), with a particular focus on the region of Balochistan. Given the history of multiple insurgencies that the Pakistani Military has confronted in Balochistan, the book examines the region's intricate conflict ecosystem and security landscape, which poses potential threats to the CPEC. Structured chronologically, the book traces the evolution of the Pakistani Army's counterinsurgency practices inherited in 1947 from the British Indian Army's culture of fighting small wars through to the contemporary counterinsurgency (COIN) adaptation in the 'war on terror', and afterwards, to the fifth round of the Balochistan insurgency. The analysis centres on the development of counterinsurgency theory and practice by the Pakistani Army. It empirically investigates the efficacy of the COIN strategy in Balochistan. The author argues that the approach significantly changed after conceptualising the doctrine, especially from 2016 onwards, from 'butcher and bolt' to the inclusion of critical components like political primacy, affect-based and focused use of force, 'winning hearts and minds' and rules of engagement. As a result, there was reduced violence and an increased number of insurgent surrenders. The book concludes that the Pakistani Army has largely controlled the insurgency in Balochistan. However, simultaneously, there is an urgent need to reduce tangible support to the insurgents through porous borders and implement an effective strategy to sever the nexus between the Islamic State of Khorasan (ISKP) and the Baloch insurgent organisations, as well as the sectarian militant organisations in Balochistan province. This is crucial to ending the insurgency and ensuring the security of CPEC. A novel contribution to the study of counterinsurgency and the importance of CPEC to China's foreign policy and diplomacy, as well as its effects on the conflict dynamics in Balochistan, the book will be of interest to researchers studying War and Conflict Studies, Terrorism Studies, International Relations, Security and Strategic Studies, and South Asian and Chinese Studies"--

This thesis studies the role of credit rating agencies (CRAs) in capital markets, and the effects of two important regulatory decisions that are taken to improve the quality of information available to the capital markets. In particular, this thesis examines a) the importance of credit ratings to the debt markets and the level of trust investors place on CRAs b) whether the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) improves the quality of accounting information in European Union, and c) whether implementation of Market Abuse Directive (MAD) has been successful in deterring the market manipulation activities, improving the quality and flow of information to the capital markets, and reducing selective disclosure of private information. Chapter 2 of this thesis shows that the extent of investors' reliance on the credit ratings depends on whether or not these ratings correspond to the ratings that are expected based on publically available information. Chapter 3 demonstrates that the reporting under IFRS is associated with higher credit ratings and a lower probability and level of rating disagreements between CRAs. The results in Chapter 4 reveal a decrease in the level of market manipulation activities and the provision of selective disclosures subsequent to the implementation of MAD. Chapter 4 also provides evidence of more timely and accurate information flowing to the security markets after implementation of MAD. Overall the findings in this thesis show that the participants in the capital markets prefer credit ratings that have strong association with the publically available information and that financial regulations introduced during the last decade enhanced the quantity and quality of information available to the capital markets.

In this era, the ultimate vision is to transform current technologies into intelligent global environments to facilitate everyday transactions. The emerging Industry 4.0 has introduced promising potential technologies that have expedited the transition of Internet of Things (IoT) into the Internet of Everything (IoE), utilizing the advances in artificial intelligence. Such a transition implies that sensitive data can be effortlessly accessed via the open network used by various domains such as military, business, transportation, medical, and education, leading to potential security concerns. Although a blockchain, along with the above fields, already employs a fast network such as 5G, the explosive growth in the development and implementation of various Industry 4.0-related domains requires significantly faster networking speeds and a secure mechanism for data transfer. This exhibits the need for 6G to meet the requirements of real-time applications, as shown in the graphical representation of the abstract. The bulk of this work was performed on a blockchain, but some methodology was needed that fulfilled security at different levels, such as the process level, data level, and infrastructure level. Our contribution in this work was twofold: first, at the process level, a novel smart contract mechanism was described; and second, at the data level, a digital signature methodology was employed that allowed anonymization to authenticate and secure the blockchain without encryption.

Abū Naṣr Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Fārābī (d.339/950), a renowned Muslim philosopher, logician, and a polymath, is relatively lesser known for his contribution to the study of language, and most of his introductions are based on his politico-philosophical writings. The present paper seeks to throw light on Fārābī's contribution to linguistics and critically compare it with the ideas of some of the most notable contemporary linguists, chiefly with those of Noam Chomsky. The study traces remarkable similarities as well as crucial differences. Fārābī's Kitāb al-Ḥurūf (Book of Letters) contains many of his ideas, which harbingered some of the most far-reaching linguistic theories/disciplines of the twentieth century, including universal grammar, cognitive semantics, formal semantics, Saussurean structuralism, and discourse studies. Writers and researchers as diverse as Ian R. Netton, Peter Adamson, Muhammad Ali Khalidi, Richard Rudolph Walzer, Thérèse-Anne Druart, Charles Butterworth, and Nadja Germann have played a significant role over the recent years to highlight Fārābī's accomplishments in the field of linguistics. The present-day language-related issues allow us to appreciate more profitably the singularity of Fārābī as an exceedingly perceptive linguist and a semanticist. This paper too is a contribution to this tradition.

PurposeAlthough Mitchellet al.(1997) recognize salience attributes as variables, the salience framework based on a dichotomous representation of salience attributes does not explain why, in some instances, a latent stakeholder is assigned more salience than a definitive stakeholder. This paper explains this riddle by bringing the debate to the organizational population level and suggests a new perspective for understanding the process of stakeholder identification and prioritization.Design/methodology/approachThe authors compare two organizational populations, i.e. "for-profit and not-for-profit" which are distinguishable from one another based on the dominant institutional logic that each endorses. The authors, therefore, mobilize the institutional theory and bring the debate of the stakeholder salience to the organizational population level.FindingsThe authors propose that members of an organizational population endorsing similar institutional logic develop salience attributes of similar potential values, which are radically different from those of the members of other organizational populations; these potential values act as precursors that determine the perceived values of salience attributes for a manager; and dominant and recessive salience attributes work, at the organizational population level, to determine stakeholder prioritization.Originality/valueThe original model of Mitchellet al.(1997) has been cited more than 9,000 times, but the process of stakeholder evaluation remains a black box (Bundyet al., 2013; Tashman and Raelin, 2013). This paper contributes to the debate and suggests a change in the level of analysis (to the organizational population) and a focus on the institutional logic perspective.

This study investigates the relationship between workplacebullying, interpersonal conflict and deviant work behavior amongnurses in the public sector in Pakistan. For this purpose the datawere collected from 277 nurses working in government hospitals byusing convenience sampling method. Findings showed that workplace bullying results in deviant work behavior among nurses andthis relationship is mediated by interpersonal conflict like negativeemotional reaction, perceived disagreements and interference fromand towards colleagues. The implications of the findings for hospitaladministrators and directions for future research are provided.

Malicious software (malware) represents a threat to the security and the privacy of computer users. Traditional signature-based and heuristic-based methods are inadequate for detecting some forms of malware. This paper presents a malware detection method based on supervised learning. The main contributions of the paper are two ensemble learning algorithms, two pre-processing techniques, and an empirical evaluation of the proposed algorithms. Sequences of operational codes are extracted as features from malware and benign files. These sequences are used to create three different data sets with different configurations. A set of learning algorithms is evaluated on the data sets. The predictions from the learning algorithms are combined by an ensemble algorithm. The predicted outcome of the ensemble algorithm is decided on the basis of voting. The experimental results show that the veto approach can accurately detect both novel and known malware instances with the higher recall in comparison to majority voting, however, the precision of the veto voting is lower than the majority voting. The veto voting is further extended as trust-based veto voting. A comparison of the majority voting, the veto voting, and the trust-based veto voting is performed. The experimental results indicate the suitability of each voting scheme for detecting a particular class of software. The experimental results for the composite F1-measure indicate that the majority voting is slightly better than the trusted veto voting while the trusted veto is significantly better than the veto classifier. ; Open Access Journal

Malicious software (malware) represents a threat to the security and the privacy of computer users. Traditional signature-based and heuristic-based methods are inadequate for detecting some forms of malware. This paper presents a malware detection method based on supervised learning. The main contributions of the paper are two ensemble learning algorithms, two pre-processing techniques, and an empirical evaluation of the proposed algorithms. Sequences of operational codes are extracted as features from malware and benign files. These sequences are used to create three different data sets with different configurations. A set of learning algorithms is evaluated on the data sets. The predictions from the learning algorithms are combined by an ensemble algorithm. The predicted outcome of the ensemble algorithm is decided on the basis of voting. The experimental results show that the veto approach can accurately detect both novel and known malware instances with the higher recall in comparison to majority voting, however, the precision of the veto voting is lower than the majority voting. The veto voting is further extended as trust-based veto voting. A comparison of the majority voting, the veto voting, and the trust-based veto voting is performed. The experimental results indicate the suitability of each voting scheme for detecting a particular class of software. The experimental results for the composite F1-measure indicate that the majority voting is slightly better than the trusted veto voting while the trusted veto is significantly better than the veto classifier. ; Open Access Journal

PurposeDrawing on affective events theory (AET), this study aims to examine how green human resource management (GHRM) practices influence employees' environmental commitment (EEC) and organizational citizenship behavior for the environment (OCBE) through the mediating role of harmonious environmental passion (HEP).Design/methodology/approachTime-lagged and multisource data were collected from employee–coworker dyads (n = 231) working in manufacturing companies. The data were analyzed using the partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling (SEM) technique.FindingsResults revealed that GHRM practices predicted both EEC and OCBE significantly. Further, HEP partially mediated the relationship of GHRM practices with EEC and OCBE.Originality/valueThis study provides new insights towards the unattended affective processes that underlie the link between GHRM practices and green employee outcomes through a coherent theoretical lens of AET. It spotlights that implementing GHRM practices as a strategic choice helps evoke HEP among employees, which is an essential determinant of employees' eco-friendly attitude and behavior.

Purpose
In the post-#MeToo movement era, heightened awareness regarding harassment at workplace has forced corporations to consider gender-based harassment as a serious issue. This study aims to theorise and test psychological capital as a resource reservoir to cope with burnout experienced in the form of emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced personal accomplishments as results of gender-based harassment at workplace.


Design/methodology/approach
Multi-wave data were collected from 304 female employees working in project-based organisations in the information technology industry in Pakistan.


Findings
The analysis shows contradictory findings about the prevalence of sexual harassment when a behavioural measurement approach was used against a direct query method. The results also show that gender harassment leads to burnout causing emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced personal accomplishment among the victims. However, psychological capital helps victims cope with these adverse effects of gender harassment.


Practical implications
Managers need to boost the psychological capital of female workers and devise effective policies to combat gender harassment in the workplace. Enforcement of legislation regarding harassment in the workplace should be ensured, which will also indicate seriousness towards the achievement of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal No. 5, that is, gender equality.


Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to present psychological capital as a resource reservoir to combat the negative effects of gender harassment and has been conducted in less studied non-Western work settings.

AbstractStudies mutually disagree on which stakeholders matter to the managers. Based on a finer differentiation of salience attributes—power, legitimacy, urgency, and proximity—this study finds that stakeholders that possess four attributes' types—that is, structural legitimacy, utilitarian power, organized proximity, and criticality—are considered salient by managers of microfinance organizations. Collaboration with salient stakeholders is considered indispensable by microfinance managers.