Previous Investment Research Articles

FACTORS INFLUENCING YOUTH EMPLOYMENT IN EU

Youth unemployment is not only a challenge in Europe but also a global issue, with varying degrees of severity across different countries. The causes and potential solutions for youth unemployment differ widely, highlighting the need for tailored approaches. Given the long-term risks associated with prolonged unemployment, addressing this issue is crucial, as young people represent the future potential of every nation. This topic has garnered significant media attention and has been a prominent discussion point in various business and policy forums. Within the European Union, youth unemployment is a high priority on the policy agenda. The European Commission has recently launched the “Youth Opportunities Initiative” to support unemployed young people. This initiative aims to provide funding for apprenticeship and entrepreneurship programs, facilitate company placements, and offer guidance for young individuals with business ideas. Current levels of youth unemployment need to be understood in the context of increased labor market flexibility, an expansion of higher education, youth migration, and family legacies of long-term unemployment. Compared with previous recessions, European-wide policies and investments have significantly increased with attempts to support national policies. We argue that understanding youth unemployment requires a holistic approach that combines an analysis of changes in the economic sphere around labor market flexibility, skills attainment, and employer demand, as well as understanding the impact of family legacies affecting increasingly polarized trajectories for young people today.

Role transition, investment practice and risk Management of Peer-to-peer Lending Investors: Based on the perspective of investor learning

Online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending has emerged as a result of the integration of finance and technology. Within the P2P lending market, individual investors have the opportunity to make repeated investments and engage in two-way transactions involving loans and investments. This setting provides an ideal scenario for studying the impact of different learning types on investors' risk management. Drawing on transaction data from the online lending platform Renrendai.com, we empirically examine the influence of role transition and investment practice on investors' risk identification, risk preference, and investment performance. We introduce variables related to loans and investment portfolios to analyze the effects. Our findings reveal that investment practice has a greater effect than role transition in reducing the investment default of online lending investors. Additionally, role transition is associated with a decrease in the investment amount set by investors and a reduced reliance on borrowers' credit ratings. Historical investment experience also leads to a decrease in the investment amount, while experiences of past investment failures improve investors' reference to borrowers' credit ratings. Furthermore, we observe that borrowing experience and previous investment failures contribute to a lower probability and proportion of high-risk loans in the portfolio. We shed light on the “black box” of investor learning and expand the research methodology for understanding investor behavior characteristics in the Fintech era.

Links between deforestation, conservation areas and conservation funding in major deforestation regions of South America

Abstract Land‐use change is a major driver of biodiversity loss, affecting tropical forests and savannas at an unprecedented rate. To protect these ecosystems and their biodiversity, national conservation areas and international conservation funding have increased considerably in these regions. Understanding of how conservation funding allocation relates to dynamics in deforestation and conservation areas is crucial to identifying what mobilizes and distributes conservation funding. By applying fixed‐effect models on 30 years of dynamics in forest cover, conservation areas and conservation funding in the main deforestation regions of South America, we analysed the conservation funding allocation strategies in relation to deforestation (proactive vs. reactive), conservation areas (expanding or consolidating) and previous investment (agglomerating or not). We also assessed whether allocation strategies vary across regions and the stages of deforestation and conservation. We found that funding allocation followed conservation areas and higher prior funding levels over space and over time, across all regions and deforestation stages. This highlights the important role of recognized conservation areas (including protected areas and Indigenous territories) in mobilizing financial support for conservation. The allocation strategies relating to forest dynamics, however, varied depending on the scale of analysis, whether we look at the temporal or spatial dimension, and in which regions we assessed the allocation patterns. Capturing region‐level biases and within‐region dynamics is crucial for more effective and equitable conservation. As public and private actors commit to mobilizing more conservation funding and conserving more areas of the Earth, our insights on the relations between forest change and conservation efforts can help improve the allocation of conservation areas and conservation funding. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Does prior success influence risk‐taking in foreign location decisions? A prospect theory perspective

AbstractResearch SummaryResearch suggests that foreign direct investment decisions can be biased and deviate from economic theory. This study deploys prospect theory to analyze the impact of the success of previous investments on risk‐taking in subsequent investment decisions. Our theorizing suggests that prior success influences foreign investors' decisions to take host‐country risk, and that this moderating influence on the risk‐investment relation is specific to the type of risk. The results of an event‐history study of 1259 location decisions support the notion that the success of previous investments encourages investors to enter host countries with high negative or positive risk, whereas it discourages them from entering locations with high mixed risk. The effects are stronger for investment locations that are similar than for those that are dissimilar.Managerial SummaryRegarding the varying risks that investors face in foreign countries, investment decisions may sometimes appear rather confident and sometimes rather cautious. Our study relates these decisions to the success that investors had with similar investments in the past, since research suggests that experiencing gains or losses can influence decision behavior. The results suggest that prior success affects risk‐taking in foreign direct investment decisions and comes in contrary forms, depending on the type of risk: prior success leads to overconfident investment decisions in the case of negative and positive risk, whereas it induces overcautious investment decisions in the case of mixed risk. Being aware of these behavioral tendencies can prevent managers from making biased investment decisions.

Explosive Ordnance Detection in Areas Designated for Mining

Nowadays, mining is becoming increasingly valued, as mines of various types provide a large part of the raw materials needed for construction. In order to ensure a continuous supply of extraction and raw materials, new areas need to be identified and opened up. However, some of these new areas may contain security risks such as explosive remnants of war. If we look back to the events of the World War II, there was perhaps no area in Europe that was not affected by the preparation or execution of some act of war. The warring parties deployed a full arsenal of weapons, some of which still pose a threat today. The various types of bombs, mines, projectiles and grenades were only partially operational. Explosive devices that were simply left behind or unexploded were buried beneath the surface, and continue to pose a growing threat to this day (almost eight decades later). The dismantling and disposal of the left-behind and often very poorly recovered explosive devices has been ongoing ever since. The problems of finding explosive devices and munitions tend to occur in areas where there has been no previous investment, construction or earthworks.

Diagnostics for detection and surveillance of priority epidemic-prone diseases in Africa: an assessment of testing capacity and laboratory strengthening needs.

In 2023, Africa experienced 180 public health emergencies, of which 90% were infectious diseases and 75% were related to zoonotic diseases. Testing capacity for epidemic-prone diseases is essential to enable rapid and accurate identification of causative agents, and for action to prevent disease spread. Moreover, testing is pivotal in monitoring disease transmission, evaluating public health interventions and informing targeted resource allocation during outbreaks. An online, self-assessment survey was conducted in African Union Member States to identify major challenges in testing for epidemic-prone diseases. The survey assessed current capacity for diagnosing priority epidemic-prone diseases at different laboratory levels. It explored challenges in establishing and maintaining testing capacity to improve outbreak response and mitigate public health impact. Survey data analysed diagnostic capacity for priority infectious diseases, diagnostic technologies in use, existing surveillance programmes and challenges limiting diagnostic capacity, by country. The survey result from 15 Member States who responded to the survey, showed high variability in testing capacity and technologies across countries and diverse factors limiting testing capacity for certain priority diseases like dengue and Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever. At the same time diagnostic capacity is better for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), polio, and measles due to previous investments. Unfortunately, many countries are not utilizing multiplex testing, despite its potential to improve diagnostic access. The challenges of limited laboratory capacity for testing future outbreaks are indeed significant. Recent disease outbreaks in Africa have underscored the urgent need to strengthen diagnostic capacity and introduce cost-effective technologies. Small sample sizes and differing disease prioritisation within each country limited the analysis. These findings suggest the benefits of evaluating laboratory testing capacity for epidemic-prone diseases and highlight the importance of effectively addressing challenges to detect diseases and prevent future pandemics.

Cognitive Bias Sunk Cost in Marketing

The sunk cost cognitive bias, or sunk cost fallacy, is a human tendency to continue with: an investment, make a decision, business, couple or project based on the resources that have been invested, instead of making a current evaluation of the results. future benefits and costs. The objective of the research was to analyze the impact of sunk cost cognitive bias on customer decisions and its application in neuromarketing strategies. The specific objectives were: (i) Evaluate how sunk cost influences the perception of the value of products or services. (ii) Identify marketing strategies that exploit the sunk cost bias. (iii) Propose strategies to apply the sunk cost bias in marketing. The results show that the sunk cost bias significantly influences the perception of the value of products and services, affecting purchasing decisions, depending on the educational level, gender, and income level that influence the continuity in the use of products and services. due to previous investment of time or money; When purchasing expensive items customers feel obligated to continue using paid more even if it is not useful and used in full. The continuity in prepaid subscriptions, the perception of discounts for large quantities as a way to make better use of money, the probability of participating in loyalty programs for the accumulated rewards, the preference for payments and flexible cancellation, create a valuable perception of products they have previously invested in, the preference for repairing expensive items, and the perception of loss from a previous investment. It is concluded that the sunk cost cognitive bias significantly influences the decisions and behavior of a vast majority of customers, and how companies can use this information to design effective marketing campaigns.

Pengaruh Perceived Ease of Use, Perceived Security, dan Perceived Reputation Terhadap Kepercayaan Awal Pemberi Pinjaman Pada Platform P2P Lending

This research objectives to examine the influence of perceived ease of use, perceived security, and perceived reputation on the initial trust of lenders on P2P lending platforms. The population under study consists of all Generation Z individuals residing in the city of Malang who have previously invested in P2P lending platforms. A sample of 180 respondents was selected through purposive sampling, with criteria including residency in Malang, aged between 17-26 years old, and having previous or current investment experience in P2P lending platforms. Data were collected through an online questionnaire and analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with the Partial Least Squares (PLS) approach. The findings of the research reveal that perceived ease of use, perceived security, and perceived reputation significantly influence initial trust.

IMPROVEMENT OF INNOVATION AND INVESTMENT ACTIVITIES OF THE ORGANIZATION

As noted in previous publications, innovation and investment are closely linked. It is impossible to imagine serious innovation projects without large investments, and effective investments without innovation. Often, companies have their financial reserves, but no investment, again because the company does not have innovative and profitable projects that are attractive to investors. In situations of economic instability, investors select and analyze projects for investment more carefully, since the efficiency and risk of investment are directly related to the structure of the innovation project. Economic analysis in innovation and investment activities is a tool for developing management decisions aimed at improving the efficiency of the enterprise, and is also used to assess the professional skills and competencies of enterprise managers, innovation units and specialists. Currently, there are a sufficient number of fundamental approaches and methods for determining the efficiency of capital investments throughout the investment cycle

Social reproduction, migration and labour control regimes: understanding Filipino crew experiences in the UK fishing fleet

The notion of a labour control regime provides a conceptual framework for understanding the web of actors, institutions and norms that shape disciplinary mechanisms in the labour process. While labour regime approaches have drawn in multiple scales and diverse processes, this paper argues that international migration, and social reproduction in migrant source areas, must also be understood as part of the regime. Focusing on the case of Filipino migrants in the UK fishing industry, we use qualitative interviews conducted in the port of Fraserburgh, Scotland, and a migrant sending community in the province of Cebu, Philippines. We argue that the reproductive processes of workers’ lives in their home communities are an important underpinning of the labour regime they participate in when working on contracts overseas. We identify three sets of reproductive processes in particular: the trajectories of household poverty and debt that propel labour migration; the socialisation and social networks, as well as zones of recuperation, provided by home communities; and, the long-term temporalities of previous investments in fishery migration, as well as future aspirations for financial stability and intergenerational social mobility. While reproductive spaces and processes are not controlling mechanisms in themselves, they do represent an important part of the labour regime and they begin to explain migrant fishers’ forbearance in the face of a disciplinary labour regime.

The Effect of Overconfidence Bias on Investment Decision: Sharia Stock Considerations

Investment decisions are a complex process involving risk evaluation, market analysis, and investment return projections. In the decision-making process, investors sometimes show irrational behavior because they have cognitive limitations and previous investment experience so investors are exposed to overconfident behavior. This research used 178 samples consisting of investors who had investment experience of at least 1 year. The research carried out instrument testing and used the common method bias (CMB) testing procedure. The analytical method in the research uses simple linear regression. The results of testing the research hypothesis obtained positive and significant results of overconfidence bias towards irrational investment decisions The moderating role of sharia sharia considerations on the relationship between overconfidence bias and unsupported investment decisions. This research reveals that overconfidence can have a positive influence on irrational investment decision-making. Investors who tend to have excess confidence in their knowledge and skills in analyzing the market tend to make investment decisions that are more impulsive, less rational and sometimes ignore risks significantly. Future research is recommended to further investigate the mechanisms behind the relationship between overconfidence and irrational investment decision-making, as well as involving a wider sample to obtain stronger generalizations.

Reassessing Saudi Arabia’s foreign investment laws: from protectionism to liberalization

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the extent to which these reforms address the limitations of Saudi Arabia’s previous investment framework. Long viewed as a hostile environment in which to do business, the Saudi Government has enacted a broad sweep of measures aimed at restoring investor confidence in central aspects of the country’s evolving private law framework.Design/methodology/approachThis paper offers a timely assessment of the raft of foreign investment reforms, both legislative and regulatory, that have been introduced in Saudi Arabia over the last decade.FindingsThe paper will proceed by outlining the perceived failings of the old investment regime before going on to reforms.Originality/valueIt will consider the remaining obstacles to the flow of foreign investment in Saudi Arabia in the context of the dual forces that have historically defined the Kingdom’s ambivalent investment law regime.

Effects of distance flown on pilot decision making in continued flight into deteriorating weather conditions

Introduction: Continuing flight into adverse weather remains a significant problem in general aviation (GA) safety. A variety of experiential, cognitive, and motivational factors have been suggested as explanations. Previous research has shown that adverse weather accidents occur further into planned flights than other types of accident, suggesting that previous investment of time and effort might be a contributing factor. The aim of this study was to experimentally determine the effect of prior commitment on general aviation pilots’ decision-making and risk-taking in simulated VFR flights. Method: Thirty-six licensed pilots ‘flew’ two simulated flights designed to simulate an encounter with deteriorating coastal weather and a developing extensive cloud base underneath the aircraft as it crossed a mountain range. After making a decision to continue or discontinue the flight, pilots completed a range of risk perception, risk taking, and situational awareness measures. Results: Visual flight rules were violated in 42% of the flights. Prior commitment, in terms of distance already flown, led to an increased tendency to continue the flight into adverse weather in the coastal ‘scud running’ scenario. Continuing pilots perceived the risks differently and showed greater risk tolerance than others. These ‘bolder’ pilots also tended to be more active and better qualified than the others. Conclusions: There are undoubtedly multiple factors underlying any individual decision to continue or discontinue a flight. The willingness to tolerate a higher level of risk seems to be one such factor. This willingness can increase with time invested in the flight and also seems to be related to individual flight qualifications and experience. Practical Applications: All pilots might benefit from carefully structured simulator sessions designed to safely teach practical risk management strategies with clear and immediate feedback.

Barriers to turning inventions into innovations in Brazilian public universities

Strong innovation drives enhanced competitiveness in a country, which can only be attained through investments in research and technology. Nevertheless, Brazilian firms deal with incremental innovation in terms of process innovation, design modifications, and product suitability to local market conditions. In addition, despite legislative changes and previous investments, Brazil’s ranking on the Global Index of Innovation (GII) fell from 47th in 2011 to 69th in 2017. This study examines the processes and activities that incorporate laws, norms, and cultures. It identifies the barriers researchers in Brazilian public universities face when trying to turn an invention into an innovation to determine the key features of these barriers and provide guidelines for overcoming them. Small-scale semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 key individuals in organizations involved with innovation at the university – and its limits. Data was subjected to content analysis, and the findings were consolidated based on grounded theory. Results indicate that cultural differences are the most important factor, followed by people’s lack of knowledge about the laws, norms, and policies that support innovation in public universities. Accordingly, the study offers guidelines to help manage barriers to turning inventions into innovations, including structuring the processes and activities to integrate Brazilian laws, norms, and culture, as well as connecting people and institutions to provide various technology transfer solutions.

Sunk Cost Effects for Time Versus Money: Replication and Extensions Registered Report of Soman (2001)

The sunk cost effect is the tendency for an individual’s decision making to be impacted by unrecoverable previous investments of resources. Soman (2001) found that sunk cost effect is weaker for time than for money (Studies 1 and 2) and that the facilitation of money-like accounting strengthens the sunk cost effect for time (Study 5). We conducted a Registered Report of a close, high-powered replication and extension of Soman’s (2001) Studies 1 and 2 and a conceptual replication of his Study 5 with an online sample of US American Amazon Mechanical Turk (N = 821). We found support for differences between sunk money costs and sunk time costs in Study 1 (original: ϕc = .61 [.43, .78]; replication: ϕc = .38 [.31, .45]), yet not in Study 2, in which we found sunk cost effects for both money and time (original: money – ϕc = .32 [.12, .52], time – ϕc = .02 [.00, .18]; replication: money – ϕc = .23 [.14, .33], time – ϕc = .32 [.23, .42]). In Study 5, we found no support for facilitation of money-like accounting as strengthening the sunk time cost effect. Materials, data, and code are available on: https://osf.io/pm264/.

Age-specific effects of density and weather on body condition and birth rates in a large herbivore, the Przewalski’s horse

Reproduction in young females can show a particularly sensitive response to environmental challenges, although empirical support from individual-based long-term studies is scarce. Based on a 20-year data set from a free-roaming Przewalski’s horse population (Equus ferus przewalskii), we studied effects of large-herbivore density (horses + cattle) and weather conditions experienced during different life stages on females’ annual birth rates. Foaling probability was very low in 2-year-olds, reaching maximum values in 5 to 10-year-olds, followed by a decrease in older females indicating reproductive senescence. Mother’s previous reproductive investment affected her current reproduction; young and old mothers (as opposed to middle-aged ones), which had nursed a foal for at least 60 days during the previous year, reproduced with a lower probability. Foaling probability and body condition of young females were lower when large-herbivore density was high. Reproduction was also influenced by interactive weather effects during different life stages. Low late-summer precipitation during the females’ year of birth was associated with a pronounced decrease in foaling probability in response to harsh late-winter temperatures prior to the mating season. In turn, increased amounts of late-summer rain during this early age together with more late-summer rain during the females’ current pregnancy led to an increased reproductive probability in 2–3-year-olds. These results were corroborated by the ameliorating effects of late-summer rain on body condition in such females. In conclusion, our findings highlight the interactive importance of weather conditions experienced during early life, and of density and weather during current pregnancy on foaling probability, particularly in young females.

A Quantitative Analysis of the Belt and Road Initiative

Purpose: The article aims to examine the effects of the Belt and Road Project (BRI) of China and its recent developments.
 Methodology: It does this by analyzing the effects Chinese investments have had on their largest beneficiaries. The article considers several factors such as transport, energy, and debt profiles of the countries after receiving aid under BRI.
 Findings: Through our analysis, we have found that the project is by far the most secure investment developing countries might have especially considering the diminishing aid of the USA and European countries. It is largely beneficial for both China and the beneficiaries encouraging economic growth. We have made our conclusions based on data reported through various research articles both domestic and international. These include but are not limited to papers from the SAIS-CARI website, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the World Bank, and the Boston University Energy Database.
 Recommendations: We recommend that in the future studies should be further conducted on the progress of BRI projects that have been started or planned in the future as well as the effects previous long-term investments are currently having on beneficiaries. Some research should also be conducted comparing the effectiveness of loans from the US and European countries when compared with Chinese counterparts

Dissociable neural after-effects of cognitive and physical effort expenditure during reward evaluation.

The reward after-effect of effort expenditure refers to the phenomenon that previous effort investment changes the subjective value of rewards when obtained. However, the neural mechanisms underlying the after-effects of effort exertion are still not fully understood. We investigated the modulation of reward after-effects by effort type (cognitive vs. physical) through the lens of neural dynamics. Thirty-two participants performed a physically or cognitively demanding task during an effort phase and then played a simple gambling game during a subsequent reward phase to earn monetary rewards while their electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. We found that previous effort expenditure decreased electrocortical activity during feedback evaluation. Importantly, this effort effect occurred in a domain-general manner during the early stage (as indexed by the reward positivity) but in a domain-specific manner during the later and more elaborative stage (as indexed by the P3 and delta oscillation) of reward evaluation. Additionally, effort expenditure enhanced P3 sensitivity to feedback valence regardless of effort type. Our findings suggest that cognitive and physical effort, although bearing some surface resemblance to each other, may have dissociable neural influences on the reward after-effects.

A socio-economic examination of participation in socially innovative energy projects

This paper aims to examine the role of citizen investment in scaling up renewable generation through participating or investing in social innovation in energy. It presents an explorative study demonstrating results of large-scale surveys of the general public across twelve countries (11 European plus the USA), representing the views of over 10,000 individuals. These surveys focus on three types of innovative energy business models, namely: energy cooperatives, crowdfunding and peer-to-peer platforms. In particular, we study the socioeconomic, demographic and attitudinal attributes of self-reported early participants in similar energy organizations, and also separately among those who express an unwillingness to participate in the above business models. The findings suggest that factors such as age, education, gender, risk preferences, previous general investment experience and trust in the carbon saving claims of organizations are important in explaining both self-reported previous and future participation in energy initiatives.

Sharia Stocks and Muslim Millennials Investors in Indonesia: Between Religious and Economic Motives

Purpose: The objective of this study was to explore why Muslim millennials in Indonesia prefer to invest in Islamic stocks on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). Theoretical framework: Muslim millennials prefer stock investments that align with religion and align with the consistency and moral integrity upheld by the Muslim community, including investing. Design/methodology/approach: This study was a qualitative research method with a case study approach. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with ten millennial Muslim investors who invest in Islamic stocks in the IDX. Data analysis was carried out using thematic descriptive analysis. Findings: The findings of this study suggest that millennial Muslim investors in Indonesia prefer to invest in Islamic stocks for the following reasons: adherence to Islamic values and beliefs, ethical investment, risk management, diversification, and the potential for better returns. Research, Practical & Social implications: We suggest further studies to include a case study of a more specific group of Muslim millennials to determine the influence of previous investment experiences, personal characteristics, and financial situation on their preferences in investing in Islamic stocks. In addition, it can also conduct comparative studies among several different countries or cultures to identify the factors that influence sharia stock investment decisions to provide a broader and representative picture. Originality/value: This study provides insights into the factors that drive millennial Muslim investors in Indonesia to invest in Islamic stocks. This study's findings could benefit investors, the capital market industry, and policymakers in developing targeted strategies to attract millennial investors. Additionally, this study contributes to the literature on the Islamic capital market and investment behavior in emerging markets