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Stemming the tide: does climate risk affect M&A performance?
Get PDFWe examine the effect of climate change risks (CCR) on firms' decision of engaging in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and M&A performance. In this study we use the responses by firms on ‘climate change-related risks and opportunities’ of the CDP survey and 1,372 deals of listed US firms during 2010-2020. Consistent with risk vulnerability theory, our evidence indicates that firms with higher CCR have a lower probability of engaging in M&As. After controlling for possible endogeneity, our results also indicate that if acquirers with higher climate change risks choose to engage in M&A, it significantly reduces the announcement returns. These findings suggest that extant measures of climate change risks should be rethought when evaluating M&A efficiency. More broadly, our paper provides causal evidence that managers need to integrate CCR into their formal risk management systems to avoid unsuccessful M&As
What twenty-first century leadership can learn from nineteenth century American literature
No full textWhat Twenty-first Century Leadership Can Learn from Nineteenth Century American Literature offers an account of how leaders in organizations can improve their practice in an imaginative way. It analyses how business students can use literary fiction to find solutions to workplace problems, how they can engage with fictional writers’ ideas about work, morality, and the self, and how they can articulate their own ideas about fostering a deeper connection between leaders and their teams in the workplace. The book contributes to leadership studies by setting out the case for using literary fictional texts to explore leadership scenarios. It has several purposes. The first is to provide educators with ideas on how to use fiction with students following a business curriculum. The second is to encourage industry to help their employees to become better able to analyse and synthesize complex and possibly conflicting ideas as well as how to articulate these ideas with clarity. A third purpose is to demonstrate how university and industry can work together. The book presents an alternative orientation for leaders predicated on the conviction that reading fiction will support students in becoming better at thinking about working relationships and at understanding other people. It provides the underpinnings of a unifying theoretical framework for learning through fiction in a professional context and aims to demonstrate that reading about how fictional characters respond to the challenges of life supports students to formulate their own innovative leadership thinking
Policy paper: Protecting women’s agency in the Middle East: interventions and reforms to ensure women’s rights
No full textGender-based violence (GBV) against women and girls can take many forms globally, from the absence of personal agency to sexual violence and domestic abuse. To better understand how GBV affects women in the Middle East in particular, this policy brief addresses various instances of GBV against Kurdish and Arab women in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). A particular focus is given to forced/arranged marriages, honour-based violence, and female genital mutilation, which form a ‘patriarchal trifecta’ of oppression: a phenomenon that the author has identified and researched extensively. The policy recommendations informed by this research are relevant to decision-makers in the KRI and other states, among them, Western and European Union countries that have the dealt with troubling cases of violence against women in immigrant communities and face similar challenges to women’s rights. Such violations against women are of particular relevance for the Middle East, or other societies and communities where patriarchal values and norms produce a social milieu where the main justification for violence is the protection of a social construction of honour. In such strongly patriarchal societies, young women and girls merely shift from being the property of their father’s household to being the property of their husband’s family, without acquiring any economic voice, and with no independent agency as an individual. As a result, many women remain shut out from public life and are made to suffer these inflictions in silence.
This policy brief is informed by fieldwork conducted by the author in the KRI, including 55 qualitative interviews with policymakers, United Nations (UN) officials, attorneys, academics, activists, civil society members, plus women and male survivors and perpetrators of GBV. In addition, a quantitative survey was conducted among 200 respondents, both women and men, to gauge opinions on the multi-faceted phenomenon of GBV. The author engaged in a thematic study based on a mixed methods approach, which allowed performing in-depth research and filling a substantial gap in the literature on violence against women. The goal of this policy brief is to give the public institutions responsible for monitoring women’s welfare a better picture of the challenges to equality that women still face and offer ways forward in terms of addressing these challenges
Health promotion and clients from racially diverse communities
No full textThis chapter delves into the critical aspects of health promotion tailored for clients from racially diverse communities. It emphasises the importance of culturally sensitive approaches in midwifery practice to enhance health outcomes and equity. The chapter explores various strategies and principles that midwives can employ to effectively engage with and support racially diverse clients. Through case studies and evidence-based practices, it highlights the challenges and opportunities in promoting health within these communities. The insights provided aim to equip midwives with the knowledge and skills necessary to deliver inclusive and effective health promotion interventions
A grand entrance without a blueprint: a critical analysis of the Right to Explanation in Article 86 of the European Union Artificial Intelligence Act
Get PDFArtificial Intelligence (AI) is already a transformative force across several industries, influencing decisions that significantly impact individuals and societies. In response to the growing need for transparency and accountability in AI systems, the European Union has introduced the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act), the first comprehensive regulation on AI by any regulator. This regulation, initially proposed in 2021, was updated in 2024 to expressly establish a right to explanation of AI systems in Article 86. This right aims to ensure that individuals affected by the output of AI algorithms can request an explanation to understand the rationale behind those decisions, thereby fostering trust and accountability. However, the current formulation of this right, as outlined in Article 86, has faced criticisms concerning its lack of specificity and operational clarity. This paper critiques Article 86, comparing it with analogous provisions in the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 and discussing its limitations, and implications for stakeholders
Study of a novel 3D façade configuration and its impact on energy performance and office space sustainability
Get PDFThis research paper examines how multi-angled façade systems improve and optimise energy performance compared to a flat façade and meet sustainability targets for lower energy use to align with UN SDGs 3, 11, 12, and 13. The multi-angled façade system does not tilt up and down. Instead, it employs two different window orientations on a vertical axis (left and right). The large portion orients more to the north to allow more daylight to penetrate inside the room, and the small part is oriented more to the south to provide passive solar heating. The investigations in this research paper were carried out using version 4.8 of the IDA ICE software, and the researchers evaluated the energy consumption, the energy action through the façade, and the building’s inside operative temperature. The results of this paper present the simulation findings for primary energy consumption in different scenarios. For example, the researchers explain that one can save 6.3 kWh/(m2·year) when using a multi-angled façade system compared to a flat façade. This is in addition to improving the thermal indoor climate that results from using the façades. The conclusions of the research show that the façade with multiple angles maximises using daylight and optimises solar power, thus avoiding overheating issues
Becoming an Open Dialogue practitioner: a qualitative study of practitioners’ training experiences and transitioning to practice
Get PDFIntroduction: In the context of transforming mental healthcare towards more personalised and recovery-oriented models, Open Dialogue has attracted significant international interest. Open Dialogue proposes a way of organising services and delivering care that supports an immediate response to crisis, relational continuity of care, a social network approach and the empowerment of networks through shared decision-making and a flattened hierarchy. The ODDESSI trial currently being conducted in the UK is assessing the model’s clinical and cost-effectiveness. Practitioners who delivered the approach within the trial undertook a one-year Open Dialogue foundation training programme, however little is known about their training experiences. This study aimed to explore practitioners’ experiences of receiving the training and transitioning to dialogic practice. Methods: Individual, joint and focus group interviews with 32 Open Dialogue practitioners were conducted. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the transcripts and transformational learning theory informed the interpretation of the findings. Results: Two themes further divided in subthemes were generated from the data: (1) experiences and impact of formal training and (2) becoming an Open Dialogue practitioner as an ongoing learning process beyond formal training: barriers and facilitators. Discussion: The one-year Open Dialogue foundation training was a transformative experience for participants due to its emphasis on self-work and its impact on a personal level. Practitioners felt adequately prepared by their training for dialogic practice, yet becoming an OD practitioner was seen as a continual process extending beyond formal training, necessitating ongoing engagement with the approach and organisational support. However, the commitment of participants to deliver optimal dialogic care was occasionally impeded by organisational constraints, resource limitations, and often having to concurrently deliver conventional care alongside Open Dialogue
The right to life in armed conflict
Get PDFIn the Nuclear Weapons Advisory Opinion, the International Court of Justice proposed that in the context of armed conflict the human right to life was to be assessed with reference to international humanitarian law (Lex specialis, lex generalis). This presumes a coherence or compatibility between international humanitarian law and international human rights law. However, the relationship between the two bodies manifests some tensions, which are addressed in the article. Specifically, the article considers the right to life of the combatant, which is broader under human rights law than under humanitarian law. It also looks at weapons of war. The article examines the view of the Human Rights Committee, set out in General Comment 36, that killing by an aggressor is ipso facto a violation of the right to life
Constructing debt: discursive and material strategies of labour coercion in the U.S. South, 1903-1964
Get PDFIn this chapter based on archival sources and contemporary accounts drawn from government files, political and civil rights association archives, newspaper articles and memoirs, I discuss how labour coercion was imbricated with conceptual notions and social practices of debt during the twentieth century. I will explore how planters and growers in the US South used debt to attempt to immobilise workers for the length of time that their labour was needed in the fields and to pay them cheaply, or not at all. As we will see, employers used monetary remuneration itself, often assumed to be one of the hallmarks of free labour, to entangle workers in coercive labour practices. The way this happened evolved along the chronology covered by this study, which spans from the first court cases of ‘peonage’ (being compelled to work to pay a debt) in 1903 to the end, in 1964, of the Programa Bracero, which brought to the US heavily indebted workers from Mexico.
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