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The role of agency theory in stock price crashes during the COVID-19 crisis
No full textThis study tests the empirical relevance of agency theory in explaining stock price crashes in U.S. firms. We construct two novel multidimensional indices of managerial opportunism using a broad set of agency-related variables linked to bad news hoarding. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as a natural experiment, we examine whether crisis-induced survival pressures intensify the relation between agency problems and the release of previously withheld bad news. Contrary to expectations, we find no significant association between the agency-based indices and future crashes. These findings challenge the traditional agency-based crash risk explanations and underscore the need to explore alternative mechanisms
''They are not like you and I'': Sensory methods
No full textThe pieces in this section are focused on methods and the consequences of adopting particular methodologies for how we understand our objects of analysis. Central to the criminological project is amplifying and scrutinising the process by which we categorise and classify in criminal justice practice. All too often, we can lapse into these same habits, presenting these categories as taken-for-granted, set in the social consciousness, rather than fluid and contingent. Mahuya Bandyopadhyay, Aishwarya Chandran, and Sanjukta Manna explore this issue most explicitly in their consideration of a state-run home for boys in urban India, which functioned as a correctional facility and “felt like jail” despite its benign presentation on paper. The sensory, they argue, holds the capacity to challenge and re-evaluate carceral categories. Briony Anderson, Will Arpke-Wales, Flynn Pervan, Jackson Wood, and Mark A. Wood consider the implications of conjoining categories of analysis to sensorially account for the shifting focus of harm in our rapidly evolving techno-social world. Sarah Kingston joined us via separate recording to ponder how audio methods can disrupt conventional approaches to the research process. This allowed her to engage in a more democratically informed practice with her respondents and uncover different things about their reflections on sex workers. Together, these provocations make the case that various aspects of sensory experience offer a suite of important analytical tools to more effectively excavate and unsettle assumptions about how we know. These better equip us to explore how we define power, danger, harm, and what it is to pursue research with a sensorially attuned ethical ear, concluding with a consideration of future directions
Growing autonomy and the politics of moral responsibility for military action
No full textThis paper argues that extensive and sophisticated analysis of the responsibility/accountability gap in relation to Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) occurs against a backdrop of largely ignored political and economic dynamics. Dynamics of strategic implications of the security dilemma, the inevitability of AI’s integration into military systems, and capitalist logics of profit maximisation, create, the paper argues, an environment where there is ‘no choice’ other than to develop and deploy such systems. Consequently, in the absence of choice, political responsibility for developing and deploying LAWS is drastically curtailed or even removed. This explains why remaining debates about responsibility and accountability have narrowed to the use of such systems, focusing on the points of target identification, selection, and engagement. Even here, however, the implications of these dynamics shape how analysis of the responsibility/accountability gap has developed, narrowing attention to increasingly technical and procedural questions of compliance with rules of engagement, a utilitarian version of core international humanitarian law principles of discrimination and proportionality, and prioritisation of mission success. This follows existing practice in relation to uncrewed aerial systems. The paper therefore argues for a broadening of perspective to fully recognise the range and extent of ethical issues LAWS present
Que(e)rying methodologies for research on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) domestic abuse
No full textPurpose Research about domestic abuse (DA) in the relationships of LGBT+ people is becoming more commonplace but is also dominated by particular methodological tropes that, we argue, constrain the kinds of knowledge that can be produced about this serious social problem. We critically consider the potential of much of the existing quantitative research either to reflect the diversity of identities of sexuality and gender that exist or to properly interrogate DA relationship dynamics. MethodsOur feminist, intersectional understanding of DA considers relationships of power rather than individual incidents as central to making sense of DA; and recognises that ostensibly abusive behaviours can be motivated by self-defence as well as retaliation or to coercively control a partner (Johnson, 2008). Existing research relies solely on questionnaires that create categories of identities and behaviours that are reductive and provide precarious correlations between abusive behaviours and social variables.ResultsIn response, we offer the [Project 1 name] mixed methods approach (Hester and Donovan 2009) as a viable alternative approach. The questionnaire captures the context of, motives for and impacts of abusive behaviour; and offers participants the opportunity to provide qualitative explanations of responses. Importantly, this methodology allows an alternative approach to investigating so-called mutual abuse which is too often suggested as characterising domestic abuse in the relationships of LGBT+ people. ConclusionsWe make a case for a more thoughtful and nuanced approach to data collection that draws on what is known about LGBT+ relationships, DA and identities to better ensure a more relevant and useful knowledge base
Surface and Interface Engineered Hydrated Nickel Hydroxide on Nickel Enables Rapid Active Species Shuffling in Alkaline Hydrogen Electrocatalysis
No full textAchieving acid‐like hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity in alkaline media using low‐cost, non‐precious metal catalysts is essential for energy conversion technologies. Here, we demonstrate the indispensable role of water within the catalyst layer in enhancing HOR/HER kinetics, mediated by hydrated and dehydrated oxophilic sites on nickel (Ni) catalysts coated with nickel hydroxide (Ni(OH)2). Electrochemical measurements combined with density functional theory (DFT) calculations show that an acid‐like environment creates at the electrified interface through water molecules that bridge active hydrogen and oxygen species within the catalyst surface layer. This interfacial behavior differs from that described in conventional bulk and interface models. Our findings highlight the importance of interfacial hydrogen bonding network across the interface in hydrogen electrocatalysis and provide guidance for the design of efficient catalysts for alkaline fuel cell and electrolyzer applications
New insights on low-mass dark matter subhalo tidal tracks via numerical simulations
Get PDFSeveral studies assert that dark matter (DM) subhaloes without a baryonic counterpart and with an inner cusp always survive. We conduct numerical simulations to analyse the evolution of the circular velocity peaks (, and its radial value ) and concentration of low-mass DM subhaloes under tidal stripping. We employ the improved version of the dash code introduced in the subhalo-survival work of A. Aguirre-Santaella et al. We follow the tidal evolution of a single DM subhalo orbiting a Milky Way (MW)-size halo modelled with a baryonic disc and a bulge representing the MW’s mass distribution, accounting for the time-evolving gravitational potential of the MW. We simulate subhaloes with unprecedented accuracy, varying their initial concentration, orbital parameters, and inner slope. Unlike previous literature, we examine the evolution of subhalo structural parameters – tidal tracks – not only at orbit apocentres but also at pericentres, finding in the former case both similarities and differences –particularly pronounced for prompt cusps. Overall, shrinks more than , leading to a continuous rise of subhalo concentration with time. The velocity concentration at present is around two orders of magnitude higher than the one at infall – about an order of magnitude more compared to the increase found for field haloes – being comparatively larger for pericentre tidal tracks versus apocentres. These findings highlight the importance of tidal effects in reshaping low-mass DM subhaloes, providing insights for future research via simulations and observations, such as correctly interpreting data from galaxy satellite populations, subhalo searches with gravitational lensing or stellar streams, and indirect DM searches
Herding and informed trading: Evidence from Chinese equity markets
Get PDFWe empirically investigate the relationship between informed trading and market herding in China for the 2003–2022 period and find a negative contemporaneous relationship, which grows stronger for specific market/economic conditions. Herding comprises of a very strong noise-driven herding and a fundamentals-driven anti-herding; informed trading dampens the former, while boosting the latter. Our results hold when controlling for the 2012 anti-insider trading laws and days of price-limit hits. Evidence on the dynamic relationship between informed trading and herding demonstrates that informed trading Granger-causes herding. Overall, informed traders motivate stronger herding over time, dampening it contemporaneously, thus suggesting that they prey on the very herding they attract
What’s in a Name? Abbasi and Another v Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; Haastrup v King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust [2025] UKSC 15
No full textBehind Familiar Doors: A Scholar’s Reflexive Journey into Insider Research
No full textPurpose – This article has two main objectives. First, it examines the strengths and limitations of insider positionality in the process of gaining access to research participants, while responding to calls within Management and Organizational Studies to address the emotional strain experienced by both participants and researchers in qualitative research. Second, the article demonstrates the value of reflexive autoethnography in exploring personal assumptions, positionalities, and emotional responses. Methodology – The research adopts an autoethnographic approach that weaves together sensemaking and reflexivity. The analysis is grounded in the lived experiences of an Early-Career Scholar navigating entry into a research field within a business school context, positioning the researcher as an insider. The analysis is further supported by the rest of the article’s authorship team.Findings – Our findings reveal that insider positionality can expose researchers to emotional strains relative to rejection, the management of expectations, and the representation of other voices. While it eased organizational entry initially, it later constrained secondary access by triggering participants’ fear of exposure, which challenges the assumption that insider access is inherently easy. Second, we identify autoethnography as a valuable and cathartic research method for the researcher, allowing them to share experiences and transform key moments of dissonance into insights through retrospective reflection.Originality/value –This thought-provoking article presents a reflexive study that critically examines the insider researcher’s positionality and assumptions during the process of gaining access, while also framing research as an immersive, emotional, and interconnected endeavor
Internal Interfaces in Exfoliated MoS 2 Exhibit Junction-like Behavior
Get PDFMechanical exfoliation remains a ubiquitous method for material deposition in van der Waals layered semiconductors, despite usually producing terraced structures where the layer count changes across the flake, resulting in variations in the band gap magnitude across the device. While most published studies circumvent this phenomenon using sophisticated fabrication processes, these internal interfaces present a unique opportunity for the realization of engineered quantum building blocks within single-crystalline materials. The electronic structure of internal interfaces in MoS2, termed here “quasi-heterojunctions”, is studied using a combination of photoluminescence and Raman spectroscopies, Kelvin probe force microscopy, and macroscopic transport measurements. In the transition between 5 to 2 to 1 layers within a single crystal, heterojunctions form, with band offsets of 22 and 24 meV in the conduction bands of the respective junctions. Variations of bandgap and electron affinity, as well as the formation of line defects, are shown to be the primary cause determining the rectification properties of the two junctions in series. Moreover, the formation of a line defect results in a space-charge region that introduces nonlinear properties to its response (I–V) curves. Finally, computational reconstruction of the measured surface potential using a finite element Poisson solver enables the determination of detailed electronic structures of the constituent segments and their quasi-heterojunctions
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