This is a retrospective case study of an antisemitic lone actor terrorist who completed the deadliest attack against the Jewish community in American history. The analysis through the lens of the Terrorist Radicalization Assessment Protocol (TRAP-18) finds that 72% of the warning indicators were present, including four proximal warning behaviors suggesting high or imminent risk for a targeted attack: pathway, identification, last resort, and energy burst. The case also illustrates the impact of this attack on subsequent violent events through forensic linguistic analysis of Terrorgram and other lone actors' communications. The discussion focuses upon mitigation of such lone-actor violence, including the implementation of behavioral threat assessment and management (BTAM) teams, the use of structured professional judgment instruments (SPJ) to assess risk, the simultaneous and continuous monitoring of both online and on-the-ground activity of the person of concern, the location and speed of movement on the pathway to violence, and disaggregation of the motivation, risk and potential outcome in the case through scenario planning and dynamic management. The authors close with a discussion of pertinent questions for altering the macro environment, particularly online, to mitigate the risk of future attacks.

In recent years, the global economy has entered a period of slower growth, weaker consumption, and heightened financial volatility. During the economic downturn after 2020, the real estate finance was significantly affected by the macro environment and has been under increasing pressure. This paper examines the transmission channels of financing shocks caused by the downturn, through which macroeconomic stress is passed on to real estate-related financial markets. The study mainly adopts qualitative research, literature review, case study and descriptive data analysis. Market indicators and real case evidence are chosen to support the theoretical reasoning, including information about investment overview, house pricing index, delinquency rates, CMBS issuance and examples of responding policies. The paper finds that the difficulties in real estate finance are mainly from cash-flow shocks, tighter financing and credit conditions, and increasing risk premia. These factors weaken market funding conditions and undermine market expectations, pushing the sector into distress. Specifically, depending more heavily on operational income and refinancing conditions. Commercial real estate is more vulnerable to the downturn. Although financial policies can ease short-term liquidity and credit stress, they cannot solve the structural changes and produce a full recovery.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify challenges and opportunities for a resilient workforce ecosystem in a peripheral region by exploring employee attraction and retention strategies within a tourism and hospitality business ecosystem. The study analyzes how tourism and hospitality actors describe the internal and external conditions for employer branding, staff attraction and retention. Design/methodology/approach The study takes an exploratory, qualitative approach. Empirical data were collected through interviews with 25 actors across different levels of the tourism and hospitality ecosystem in northern Sweden. Findings Attracting and retaining competent staff is one of the greatest challenges in tourism and hospitality, due to contextual and employer-related factors. The way forward demands a new approach that looks beyond the organizational level. Co-opetition on competence development, retention strategies and employer branding activities in the business ecosystem can be a solution to increase resilience and industry brand strength. Research limitations/implications There are limitations related to sampling and study context. Future research could identify good examples and solutions to address the challenges posed by the macro environment and further examine the formation and dynamics of collaborative networks in tourism and hospitality. Practical implications Several opportunities for a resilient workforce ecosystem for tourism and hospitality are outlined. These can be used strategically by actors at different levels of the ecosystem. Originality/value The ecosystem perspective has only recently been applied to workforce structures and employer branding, and studies in the tourism and hospitality industry are scarce.

In the post-financial crisis era, global trade protectionism rises, and the cost of domestic production factors increases. The traditional operation and management mode of "OEM + agency" of small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises in China can no longer adapt to the new market environment. These enterprises urgently need to transform and upgrade. This study takes Hangzhou Hexun Industrial Co., Ltd. as the research sample. It uses literature research method, PEST macro environment analysis method, SWOT matrix analysis method and case analysis method. The study sorts out four core problems of the traditional operation and management mode of small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises in China. It analyzes the macro environment and industrial characteristics of China's foreign trade industry in the new trade environment. Combined with the internal resources and capabilities of Hangzhou Hexun, the study puts forward an innovative operation and management model for small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises. This model takes "customer demand as the core and six dimensions as support". In addition, the study discusses the implementation path, applicable conditions and industry universality of the model. It provides theoretical reference and practical path for small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises in China to break through development bottlenecks and improve core competitiveness.

Purpose We provide a systematic literature review of the determinants and consequences of income smoothing in an international context. First, we offer a theoretical discussion of income smoothing, which is motivated either by opportunistic or by informative reasons, followed by an examination of its measurement. Next, we review the determinants of income smoothing, categorizing them into financial reporting standards, firm characteristics, corporate governance, managerial characteristics and macro environment determinants. We then review the empirical literature on the consequences of income smoothing from the perspective of capital market and credit market consequences. We also provide some suggestions for future research. Design/methodology/approach We perform a systematic literature review using the Preferred Reporting Items for a Systematic Review of Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines to examine archival studies investigating the determinants and consequences of income smoothing. Using a Boolean search strategy on Scopus and PRISMA selection criteria, we review 111 published archival research articles from 2004 to the first quarter of 2025. Findings The implementation of reporting standards reduces income smoothing practices. Firm characteristics have varied effects on income smoothing, while governance reforms and internal corporate governance mechanisms are generally found to constrain smoothing behavior. Our review further reveals that managerial characteristics are associated with income smoothing practices. Furthermore, exogenous shocks also shape managerial incentives to engage in income smoothing. The capital market consequences of income smoothing reveal that income smoothing improves earnings informativeness, lowers both equity and credit investors' perceived risk, but increases future stock price crash risk. The credit market effect shows that income smoothing lowers the cost of debt capital. Originality/value Although there remains a high-quality review on earnings quality (e.g. Dechow et al., 2010), we lack a thorough coverage of the evolution of income smoothing research for the last two decades. We fill that void in the literature, highlight some research gaps, draw researchers' attention to measurement problems associated with existing smoothing measures, and offer some suggestions for future research.

Purpose This study examines how organisational actors make sense of the external macro environment and how these sensemaking processes shape strategic understanding and organisational action under conditions of persistent uncertainty. Moving beyond objectivist approaches to environmental analysis, the study positions sensemaking as a central strategic practice through which organisations interpret and respond to volatile, non-linear, and ambiguous external conditions. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts a qualitative, interpretive research design based on an embedded single-case study of a Sri Lankan export-oriented manufacturing organisation operating in a Global South context. Data were generated through 38 semi-structured, in-depth interviews conducted across multiple organisational levels, complemented by field observations. Data analysis followed Braun and Clarke's reflexive thematic analysis to identify patterned meanings in how organisational actors interpret the external environment and translate these interpretations into strategic action. Findings The findings show that organisational actors do not treat the external environment as an objective or stable reality but actively construct it through multiple, overlapping modes of sensemaking. These include retrospective sensemaking following disruption, experiential sensemaking grounded in operational practice, narrative sensegiving to translate global pressures, emergent sensemaking through action and learning, and ethical sensemaking that humanises environmental pressures. These sensemaking processes directly shape strategic understanding and action by legitimising incremental and adaptive responses, enabling learning-oriented capability development, distributing strategic agency across organisational levels, and embedding ethical considerations into everyday strategic practice. Strategy emerges as an evolving pattern of action rather than the implementation of predefined plans. Originality/value The study contributes to strategic management and sensemaking literature by shifting attention from episodic crises to ongoing sensemaking of the macro external environment as a foundational strategic practice. It enriches strategy-as-practice scholarship by empirically connecting macro environmental pressures to micro-level action through interpretation. By offering a Global South perspective, the study challenges universalistic strategy assumptions and highlights the ethical and contextual dimensions of strategic sensemaking in environments characterised by structural uncertainty. This study extends existing sensemaking and strategy-as-practice research by showing how macro-environmental interpretation operates as an ongoing, ethically infused strategic practice. It advances understanding of how actors in structurally uncertain Global South contexts construct legitimacy and coherence under persistent volatility.

The study examines the ontological and psychological aspects of the phenomenon of betrayal in Ramiz Rovshan's prose within the context of the works “Betrayal” and “Who is Dead, Who is Alive?!”. By analyzing betrayal through the lens of the dialectics of desire and fear, the author uses artistic evidence to substantiate the mechanisms by which individual passions transform into socio-national tragedies. The article interprets the manifestations of moral erosion in micro and macro environments, while evaluating the essence of betrayal as a form of internal weakness and existential crisis from a theoretical perspective.

Beamforming is highly significant for the physical layer of wireless communication systems, for multi-antenna systems such as multiple input multiple output (MIMO) and massive MIMO, since it improves spectral efficiency and reduces interference. Traditional linear beamforming methods such as zero-forcing beamforming (ZFBF) and minimum mean square error (MMSE) beamforming provide closed-form solutions. Yet, their performance drops when they face non-ideal conditions such as imperfect channel state information (CSI), dynamic propagation environment, or high-dimensional system configurations, primarily due to static assumptions and computational limitations. These limitations have led to the rise of deep learning-based beamforming, where data-driven models derive beamforming solutions directly from CSI. By leveraging the representational capabilities of cutting-edge deep learning architectures, along with the increasing availability of data and computational resources, deep learning presents an adaptive and potentially scalable alternative to traditional methodologies. In this work, we unify and systematically compare our two unsupervised learning architectures for uplink receive beamforming: a simple neural network beamforming (NNBF) model, composed of convolutional and fully connected layers, and a transformer-based NNBF model that integrates grouped convolutions for feature extraction and transformer blocks to capture long-range channel dependencies. They are evaluated in a common multi-user single input multiple output (MU-SIMO) system model to maximize sum-rate across single-antenna user equipments (UEs) under 3GPP-compliant channel models, namely TDL-A and UMa. Furthermore, we present a FLOPs-based asymptotic computational complexity analysis for the NNBF architectures alongside baseline methods, namely ZFBF and MMSE beamforming, explicitly characterizing inference-time scaling behavior. Experiments for the simple NNBF are performed under simplified assumptions such as stationary UEs and perfect CSI across varying antenna configurations in the TDL-A channel. On the other hand, transformer-based NNBF is evaluated in more realistic conditions, including urban macro environments with imperfect CSI, diverse UE mobilities, coding rates, and modulation schemes. Results show that the transformer-based NNBF achieves superior performance under realistic conditions at the cost of increased computational complexity, while the simple NNBF presents comparable or better performance than baseline methods with significantly lower complexity under simplified assumptions.

The design and validation of 5G systems rely heavily on standardized radio channel models to predict real-world performance. The 3GPP TR 38.901 and the ITU-R M.2412 reports are the industry’s cornerstones for this purpose, yet they exhibit significant technical differences, particularly in the sub-6 GHz frequency band and millimeter-wave indoor scenarios. This paper presents a rigorous comparative study of these two standards, quantifying the performance impact of their divergences across canonical deployment scenarios. Using a unified simulation framework implemented in ns-3, we analyze pathloss and Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) in Rural Macro (RMa), Urban Macro (UMa), Urban Micro (UMi), and Indoor Hotspot (InH) environments. Our results reveal that while the models align in rural scenarios, they diverge fundamentally in complex urban environments. The ITU-R model proves to be a more conservative benchmark in UMa NLOS, predicting a median SNR up to 9.5 dB lower than 3GPP. Conversely, in UMi NLOS, the 3GPP model describes a significantly more volatile channel (higher shadow fading variance), making it a risky predictor for Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications (URLLC). Furthermore, our analysis of the indoor 28 GHz scenario exposes a dramatic discrepancy: the ITU-R’s optional model is exceptionally optimistic, showing a performance gap of up to 34 dB compared to the standard 3GPP model. We conclude that these technical divergences reflect differing design philosophies – optimistic prediction vs. conservative benchmarking – dictating that model selection must be strategically aligned with the specific 5G service pillar (eMBB or URLLC) under evaluation.

Safe-Haven Efficiency of vGRE-Lite Regime Detection in Gold Across Major Macro Shocks (2010-2026)

This study investigates the shifting power dynamics within global supply networks amidst supply scarcity and the implications for supply security. It focuses on the impact of the semiconductor shortages on automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) between 2020 and 2024, where traditional hierarchies of power shifted, and OEMs had to increasingly rely on their lower-tier suppliers for supply and innovation. Data are collected using a mix of participatory observations, interviews, and secondary sources from the focal OEM (and its holding group), its suppliers, its distributors, and market experts. Utilizing resource dependence theory as a framework, we explore how OEMs navigate these dependencies to secure their supply while facing scarcity. Through an analysis spanning micro (firm), meso (inter-firm and supply network), and macro (environment) levels, this study offers insights into the sources of power and dependencies in the network, strategies for mitigating vulnerabilities and ensuring continuity of supply vis-à-vis dependency. The key strategies identified include diversifying the supplier base, forming strategic alliances, and enhancing information sharing. Further, it reveals the importance of understanding and managing interdependencies within the macro and meso levels, in addition to the micro level, to maintain power balance and the continuous supply of critical components. This study contributes to the literature by advancing the understanding of power dynamics during supply crises and providing practical recommendations for managing interdependencies to maintain supply chain resilience. • Shifting power dynamics in automotive supply networks during semiconductor shortages of 2020–2023. • OEMs' increased vulnerability due to reliance on lower-tier suppliers for innovation and resources. • Diversification, horizontal alliances, and enhanced information sharing can decrease vulnerability. • Interdependencies need to be managed at micro, meso, and macro levels in global supply networks.

ABSTRACT Background: Building a robust competitive strategy is the focal point for most contemporary businesses. Therefore, to succeed in the current turbulent environment corporate entities require a great deal of strategic management capabilities. Strategic management entails a systematic process of identifying an organization’s internal and external factors, setting optimal goals, and developing, evaluating, and implementing strategies to achieve these goals. The main objective of the study was to determine the effects of strategic management practices (SMP) on health Service delivery in public hospitals in the Kumasi Metropolis of Ghana. Methodology: The study used a cross-sectional study where a quantitative research approach and explanatory design were employed. The study was analyzed using the statistical software Social Sciences Statistics Package (version 26), and a sample size of 85 respondents was selected using stratified and simple random techniques, ensuring that the respondents participated willingly and based on their availability. Results: Majority (52.9%) of the participants were males while the age bracket 26–35 dominated (44.7%). The respondents agreed that there was participation of the internal stakeholders in formulating the strategic plans (M = 4, standard deviation [SD] = 1), agreed that the macro environment forces such as inflation, unemployment, political instability affect their planning process (M = 4, SD = 1) but disagreed, there were high rate of competition in this industry (M = 2, SD = 1). In addition, the respondents were unsure whether the outputs of the strategies and plans were evaluated in terms of strategic controlling (M = 3, SD = 1). Conclusion: The study found that strategic planning, strategic controlling, and strategy implementation had a significant effect on health service delivery. The study also found that management commitment significantly moderates the relationship between SMP and health service delivery. Thus, the study concluded that SMP and management commitment are significant predictors of health service delivery.

While there have been many explorations on the determining factors of foreign exchange rates, hardly any literature has been carried out to explore the moderating role of political stability in these relationships. This study explores the most influential macroeconomic drivers of the foreign exchange rate in Sri Lanka explicitly examining the role of political stability in the macro fundamentals-exchange rate nexus. Employing monthly data of foreign reserves, workers' remittances, trade deficit and tourism earnings from 2013–2022 and applying Generalized Method of Moments (GMM), the study tests the exchange rate dynamics within a crisis economy context. The findings show that foreign reserves, workers' remittances, and trade deficit are good predictors of foreign exchange rate in the short run, whereas the tourism earnings has no statistically significant impact in the Sri Lankan context. Further, findings reveal that political stability directly affects the exchange rate, and more interestingly, moderating the effects of other macro variables on exchange rate, by reducing the pass-through from foreign reserves, strengthening the effect of remittances, and buffering the effect of trade deficit in the short term. These findings highlight the significance of structural imbalances and institutional fragility in determining exchange rates behaviour in emerging economies in ways that are less common in stable economies. In conclusion, conducive macro environment together with credible political governance helps strengthen the currency. From policy perspective, the efforts contributing to institutional credibility, external financing strategy, remittance channels, and minimizing temporary foreign reserves accumulation are suggestive.

The global economic recovery has driven the development of various industries. With the growth of the tourism industry, the hotel industry has shown a thriving trend. In recent years, the emergence of many mid-to-high-end hotels has intensified competition within the hotel industry. Among the large scale of mid-to-high-end hotels, marketing strategies have become a core component of their development. High-quality marketing strategies can promote the rapid growth of hotels, and the competition among hotels is essentially a competition of marketing strategies.In order to investigate whether the mid-to-high-end hotel industry still has potential for future development and how mid-to-high-end hotels can formulate marketing strategies that suit their own circumstances, this paper will introduce the PESTEL analysis method and SWOT analysis method. First, it will analyze the impact of the macro environment, and then, using Atour Hotels as an example, it will analyze how the hotel adjusts its marketing strategy through internal and external development opportunities, as well as the challenges and risks it faces. Subsequently, this paper will provide recommendations for improving the marketing strategies of mid-to-high-end hotels based on the above analysis. Research has shown that although the mid- to high-end hotel industry faces some existing problems and future risks, there is still enormous room for growth. If hotels can seize opportunities and identify their own issues in a timely manner, they will be able to formulate marketing strategies that align with their own development.

Schools as educational institutions need to create safe and healthy learning spaces for teachers and students. Currently, many articles discuss student safety and healthy behavior, recognizing that schools are vulnerable to risk factors, hazards, and disasters. This study aims to identify and analyze the determinants of students' safety and health behavior from 2020 to 2024. The systematic literature review method was used to identify articles with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) approach to obtain 23 articles from 4 databases, that are Scopus, Science Direct, Proquest, and PubMed with inclusion criteria are journals published in January 2020–October 2024, in English, open access, and focused on occupational health and safety behavioral factors in students. Four themes, each comprising 14 indicators, were identified as determinants of students' safety and health behavior. The discussion fluctuates each year, involving most countries, and the majority discuss university education. The highest indicator is training (T) with eight articles, followed by technology (Te) with seven articles. This study found that the safety and healthy behavior of students when viewed from the socio-ecological model is grouped into individual (5), interpersonal (1), institutional (4), community (2), and policies macro environment (2). According to Lawrence W. Green's behavioral theory, predisposing factors accounted for 36% (5), supporting factors for 57% (8), and reinforcing factors for 7% (1). Student safety and health behavior are influenced by training, psychological models, and school community support. These findings highlight the need for continuous training and a strong safety culture as the basis for evidence-based educational policies. The conclusion of this systematic literature review is expected to serve as input for policymakers in developing strategic and practical guidelines for safety and health programs in educational units.

This study constructs a machine learning-based tactical asset allocation (TAA) framework to address the limitations of traditional strategic asset allocation (SAA) in a volatile macro environment. The study obtains macroeconomic indicators from FRED and combines Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) historical data with lagged and rolling standardization methods to avoid forward-looking bias. In this paper, ridge regression, random forest, and XGBoost prediction models are compared, and a model selection mechanism based on prediction accuracy is proposed. The results show that ridge regression is the most robust in terms of forecasting accuracy and directional consistency. Based on the forecast signal, two types of portfolio strategies are designed: the Top-N equal-weight strategy and the mean-variance optimization strategy. The empirical results show that the mean-variance optimization strategy outperforms the 60/40 benchmark portfolio in terms of risk-return performance: its annualized return rate is 15.86%, slightly higher than 15.73% of the 60/40 benchmark portfolio; The Sharpe ratio reached 1.564, up about 16.9% from 1.338 of 60/40; Volatility also decreased from 11.75% to 10.14%, significantly improving risk control. These findings verify the potential of machine learning-driven asset rotation, provide practical reference for investors and asset managers, and lay a methodological foundation for future research introducing more factors, more complex models, and cross-market validation.

This study examines the strategic approach to improve SATU Dental's competitive position as the largest mid-market dental clinic operator in Indonesia. It aims to understand the effects of regional demographics, competition, and patient behavior on clinic performance and propose strategic initiatives to enhance competitiveness. The research combines quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative part analyzes revenue, patient volume, and growth across nine areas, while the qualitative part involves interviews with internal stakeholders. Data were analyzed using VRIO, PESTEL, Porter's Five Forces, and SWOT/TOWS frameworks. Results show regional performance differences. Bogor and East Jakarta have high growth due to middle-class demographics and moderate competition; North and Central Jakarta have strong revenues but slow growth from mature patient bases. Depok and Tangerang show low performance due to price sensitivity and limited accessibility. Qualitative analysis highlighted four themes: strategic alignment, financial management, operational contingencies, and clinical practice. VRIO identifies brand reputation and service standardization as lasting competitive advantages. PESTEL indicates a positive macro environment with middle-class growth and digitalization, tempered by exchange rate fluctuations and low-cost competition. The SWOT/TOWS analysis suggests three strategic directions: (1) Service Differentiation through Clinical Excellence and Digital Integration, (2) Human Capital and Capability Development, and (3) Operational Standardization and Performance Progress. In conclusion, SATU Dental's strategic competitiveness relies on balancing standardization with localization, targeting growth in high-potential areas, and innovating services in mature markets.

Health-promoting behaviors, such as regular physical activity and healthy eating, are crucial for physical and mental health. The current research investigates whether subjective economic inequality undermines individuals’ engagement in health-promoting behaviors and examines the mediating role of future orientation. Across five studies using archival data, longitudinal surveys, and fully-controlled experiments, we find consistent evidence for these hypotheses. Study 1 ( N = 14,101), based on nationally representative data, shows a negative association between perceived inequality and physical exercise. Studies 2 ( N = 257) and 3 ( N = 361), using multiwave surveys, demonstrated that perceived inequality negatively predicted various health-promoting behaviors over time. Studies 4 ( N = 196) and 5 ( N = 391) experimentally manipulate perceived inequality and found its causal effect on reducing individuals’ willingness to engage in health-promoting behaviors and the mediating role of future orientation. Study 5 further reveals that enhancing future orientation can mitigate this negative effect. These findings highlight the importance of the perception of the macro environment for healthy lifestyles.

The full-scale war in Ukraine has posed serious challenges to business. The food industry is among the five industries with the largest number of closed companies during the full-scale war, and the situation in the dairy industry is particularly difficult, which determines the relevance of the presented study. The purpose of the article is to identify problems in conducting economic activities and opportunities to increase the efficiency and competitiveness of a dairy processing enterprise in Ukraine in the conditions of a full-scale war. The main tasks include: to compare the studied enterprise with competing enterprises and identify its strengths and weaknesses; to outline areas for increasing the efficiency of operations and the level of competitiveness of the enterprise, taking into account both negative and positive trends in the macro environment. PrJSC “Danone Kremez” (Kremenchuk) was selected for the study, one of the two enterprises that currently represent the production facilities of the French corporation Danone in Ukraine. Industry benchmarking of this enterprise was conducted using the performance indicators of LLC Terrafood (Ukraine) and Grupa Mlekovita (Poland) for 2024. The following problems in the activities of PrJSC Danone Kremez were identified: low net margin, underutilization of capacities, lower return on assets, and lower current liquidity. The key problems are the shortage of personnel and high-quality raw materials. The study of business practices in modern conditions, and in particular in war conditions, as well as scientific research on ensuring the efficiency of entrepreneurship at the current stage of economic development, gave reason to argue that the digital transformation of business can contribute to the solution or mitigation of many problems, in particular: automation and digitalization of the most routine production processes; digitalization of quality control processes of raw materials and products, logistics. The implementation of such measures will make it possible to: compensate for the shortage of labor; reach a new level of operational stability; to increase operational efficiency and competitiveness. At the same time, disadvantages should also be taken into account - attracting the necessary amount of investment may be problematic, and at the implementation stage – this is the possibility of various risks.

This article reviews the literature and analyzes the mechanism of financing cost impact from four dimensions: macro environment, enterprise characteristics, financing methods, and market environment. Macroscopically, it is influenced by interest rate liberalization, monetary policy, and regulatory systems; in terms of enterprises, it depends on credit, risk, and governance structures; in terms of financing methods, new financial instruments reshape the cost structure; at the market level, it is impacted by industry differences, regional financial ecology, and geopolitical risks. Research indicates that various factors interact with each other to jointly affect financing costs. Current research exhibits limitations such as insufficient cross-market analysis, inadequate exploration of dynamic mechanisms, and a need for enhanced research on novel mechanisms. In the future, we can focus on digital transformation, the cost mechanism of green financing under the goal of carbon neutrality, the transformation of financing models in the digital economy, and the quantitative analysis of the coupling effect of multiple dimensions. This article provides a research framework for the academic community and offers references and insights for businesses and policymakers.