This book analyzes the determinants and effectiveness of corporate governance in an integrated model drawing on contingency theory and employing structural equation modeling (SEM). Business competition as an environmental factor and strategy as an organizational factor are important determinants of corporate governance, while organizational performance and earnings quality are two dimensions of its effectiveness. This book focuses on the relationship between corporate governance and earnings management, and shows that corporate governance is effective in improving earnings quality and reducing accounting and governance risks. The authors also question the relation between corporate governance and company performance and present results of their analysis in this book.

1. 1 Background of the Study: Ef?ciency in Cross-Cultural International Business Management Ef?cient business management is crucial in achieving corporate (national or int- national/multinational) goals such as higher value, comprehensiveness, corporate governance, etc. Ef?cient business management can be achieved by resolving agency problems existing among different stakeholders in corporations. In inter- tional business, agency problems may exist between managers, owners, staff, and other stakeholders who come from different cultures. Therefore, there is a need in designing ef?cient management of international business by in?uencing the factors (the convergence factors) which cause differences in the interests and cultures of different stakeholders. International business refers to all commercial transactions between two or more nations. Because it comprises a large and growing portion of current world business practice, international business has received considerable attention in academic research (Daniels and Radebaugh 1998). International bu- ness differs in important ways from business conducted within national borders, and poses additional challenges to managers and investors in foreign countries (Mahoney et al. 1998). In this context, Black et al. (1999) state that effective management is increasingly recognized as a key determinant of success or failure, arguing that the success of international business in multinational companies depends most signi?cantly on the quality of management systems (Stroh and Caligiuri 1998). As international business involves people from different cultures, every business function including managing a workforce, marketing output, and dealing with regulators, has the potential to involve cross-cultural problems (Zineldin 2007).

In the global knowledge economy, corporate governance, organisational behaviour and performance of the supply chain are becoming increasingly important aspects of the evaluation of an enterprise. The subject of this book is the development of a contemporary organisation behaviour performance measurement (OBPM) model for enterprises in the modern economy. The fields of organisation behaviour and supply chain management are integrated with an Open Socio-Technical Systems theory of management and the application of Operations Research to corporate governance for the measurement of organisation performance. This book thereby offers a new and innovative quantitative approach to qualitative concepts of corporate performance measurement and makes a significant contribution to the fields of management theory, supply chain management as well as operations research.

This book reports initial efforts in providing some useful extensions in - nancial modeling; further work is necessary to complete the research agenda. The demonstrated extensions in this book in the computation and modeling of optimal control in finance have shown the need and potential for further areas of study in financial modeling. Potentials are in both the mathematical structure and computational aspects of dynamic optimization. There are needs for more organized and coordinated computational approaches. These ext- sions will make dynamic financial optimization models relatively more stable for applications to academic and practical exercises in the areas of financial optimization, forecasting, planning and optimal social choice. This book will be useful to graduate students and academics in finance, mathematical economics, operations research and computer science. Prof- sional practitioners in the above areas will find the book interesting and inf- mative. The authors thank Professor B.D. Craven for providing extensive guidance and assistance in undertaking this research. This work owes significantly to him, which will be evident throughout the whole book. The differential eq- tion solver "nqq" used in this book was first developed by Professor Craven. Editorial assistance provided by Matthew Clarke, Margarita Kumnick and Tom Lun is also highly appreciated. Ping Chen also wants to thank her parents for their constant support and love during the past four years.

Efficient laws have profound positive social, economic, political and welfare effects. This book develops a new approach to the formulation of efficient laws with an illustrative application to electronic fund transfer regulation in Australia. This approach can be applied to formulate efficient laws, irrespective of social, political and economic organizations of the country under study, which maximize social welfare of the country.

"Optimal Growth Economics" is concerned with the investigation of the contemporary issues in general economics, and growth economics and in the formulation of optimal growth programs, especially the issue of the sustainability of growth. This book proposes the development of optimal growth economics as a distinct, coherent and practical discipline useful for social choice by using the techniques of mathematical modelling and computing to address a wide range of emerging and enduring issues in economics. A considerable number of optimal economic growth models have been developed in the book to address the crucial issues of different branches in economics, including growth and development economics, economic planning, welfare economics, environmental economics, human capital development, political economy, natural resources and the economics of uncertainty.

This book reviews the contemporary issues in international monetary and financial economics (such as financial liberalisation, crisis, exchange rate determination, capital control, domestic capital market reform, etc.) in an emerging financial market such as Thailand from a welfare economic p- spective, highlighting the social welfare implications of these issues. This 3 book also suggests a normative social approach (as formalised in the new welfare economics paradigm) (see Islam 2001a, b for a discussion of this; concept) for analysing and addressing these issues and formulating appr- riate policies. Undertaking the above tasks, the asymmetric information paradigm 3 and other elements of the new welfare economics paradigm are adapted in analysing the international financial issues of Thailand, their causes and economic and social welfare consequences. The last two decades have been a critical period for Thailand's dev- opment. From the mid-1980s to the beginning of the 1990s, the Thai economy performed remarkably well and was a showcase for the world economy. Having achieved a double-digit growth rate for a brief period, Thailand in the late 1980s was regarded as the fastest growing economy in the world by the World Bank and the IMF. With prospects of further rapid economic growth, the Thai government accepted Article VIII of the IMF, which required Thailand to liberalise and deregulate its financial system.

Shows the application of some of the developments in the mathematics of optimization, including the concepts of invexity and quasimax to models of economic growth, and to finance and investment. This book introduces a computational package called SCOM, for solving optimal control problems on MATLAB.

In today’s era, there is a need for a system that can automate the process of treatment for the patient if medical facilities are out of reach. Smart healthcare can step in to make the patient more self-dependent. 6G with its features can be taken as the future of smart healthcare with IoT and AI. 6G-enabled IoT and AI for Smart Healthcare: Challenges, Impact, and Analysis offers the fundamentals, history, reality, and challenges faced in the smart healthcare industry today. It discusses the concepts, tools, and techniques of smart healthcare as well as the analysis used. The book details the role that Machine Learning-based Deep Learning and 6G-enabled IoT concepts play in the automation of smart healthcare systems. The book goes on to presents applications of smart healthcare through various real-world examples and includes chapters on security and privacy in the 6G-enabled and IoT environment, as well as research on the future prospects of the smart healthcare industry. This book: Offers the fundamentals, history, reality, and the challenges faced in the smart healthcare industry Discusses the concepts, tools, and techniques of smart healthcare as well as the analysis used Details the role that Machine Learning-based Deep Learning and 6G enabled IoT concepts play in the automation of smart healthcare systems Presents applications of smart healthcare through various real-world examples Includes topics on security and privacy in 6G enabled IoT, as well as research and future prospectus of the smart healthcare industry Interested readers of this book will include anyone working in or involved in smart healthcare research which includes, but is not limited to healthcare specialists, Computer Science Engineers, Electronics Engineers, Systems Engineers, and Pharmaceutical practitioners.

The primary contribution of this book is to integrate the important disciplines which simultaneously impact the investment appraisal process. The book presents a study that develops a new approach to investment appraisal which uses a multiple objective linear programming (MOLP) model to integrate the selected disciplines which include capital markets, corporate governance and capital budgeting. The research covers two case studies, one in the e-commerce sector and another in the airline industry in which the above disciplines are integrated. Readers from the areas of corporate governance, regulation, and accounting would find the survey of different approaches and the new integrated optimization approach particularly useful.

The explosion of technology in healthcare in recent years has rapidly changed the healthcare sector. Technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning along with the integration of the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) have evolved to tackle the need for remote healthcare systems, augmenting them in a self-sustainable way. This new volume explores computational tactics as applied to the development of biomedical applications, using artificial intelligence, machine learning, signal analysis, computer-aided design, robotics and automation, biomedical imaging, telemedicine, and other technologies. The book aims to provide a solid framework to provide the modern class of medical gearheads with information on the innovative applications of computational mechanisms for improving and expediting patient-friendly automation in healthcare. The volume provides an overview of the advancements in modern technology for diagnosing major life-threatening diseases, including using photonic MEMS sensors, biomedical signal processing, 1D photonic crystal-based distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs), and biosensor chips used to detect foreign bodies, such as cancer cells, or infected stages of blood cells for quick medical diagnosis. The book discusses employing predictive analysis using AI, ML, and DL for tracking diseases, predicting their progress, and designing tactics as applied to heart disease, coronavirus, and many other ailments. It looks at various machine learning methods, grouping and association rules, vector machine assistance, and evolutionary algorithms. Also discussed is the evolution and implementation of information and communication technologies in healthcare delivery, which hold enormous promise for patients, providers, and payers in future healthcare systems. Other topics include using drones in health centers, such as for drug distribution and other purposes; using powerful artificial intelligence algorithms that can reveal clinically significant information hidden in vast amounts of data; and more. Computational Health Informatics for Biomedical Applications explores the many important smart technologies that can make healthcare delivery and monitoring faster, more efficient, and less invasive. It will be a valuable resource for those at the forefront of designing and employing advanced smart technologies for improved healthcare services.

This title is concerned with the investigation of the contemporary financial issues of the e-commerce market.

Supply Chain Management and Corporate Governance: Artificial Intelligence, Game Theory and Robust Optimisation is the first innovative, comprehensive analysis and analytical robust optimisation modelling of the relationships between corporate governance principles and supply chain management for risk management and decision-making under uncertainty in supply chain operations. To avoid corporate failures and crises caused by agency problems and other external factors, effective corporate governance mechanisms are essential for efficient supply chain management. This book develops a new collaborative robust supply chain management and corporate governance (RSCMCG) model and framework that combines good corporate governance practices for risk management strategies and decision-making under uncertainty. This model is developed as a principal-agent game theory model, and it is digitalised and computed by Excel algorithms and spreadsheets as an artificial intelligence and machine-learning algorithm. The implementation of the RSCMCG model provides optimal supply chain solutions, corporate governance principles and risk management strategies for supporting the company to achieve long-term benefits in firm value and maximising shareholders' interests and corporate performance while maintaining robustness in an uncertain environment. This book shows the latest state of knowledge on the topic and will be of interest to researchers, academics, practitioners, policymakers and advanced students in the areas of corporate governance, supply chain management, finance, strategy and risk management.

This book provides a technical and specialised discussion of contemporary and emerging issues in foreign exchange and financial markets by addressing the issues of risk management and theory and hypothesis development, which have general implications for finance theory and foreign exchange market management. It offers an in-depth, comprehensive analysis of the issues concerning the volatility of exchange rates. The book has three main objectives. First, it applies the integrated study of exchange rate volatility in terms of depth and breadth. Second, it applies the integrated study of exchange rate volatility in Malaysia, as a case study of a developing country. Malaysia had imposed capital control measures in the past and has now liberalised its exchange rate market and will continue to liberalise it further in the long run. Hence, the need to understand exchange rate volatility measurement and management will be even more important in the future. Third, the book highlights new conditional volatility models for a developing country, such as Malaysia, and develops advanced econometric models which have produced results for sound risk management strategies and for achieving risk management in the financial market and the economy. Additionally, the authors recommend risk management themes which may be of relevance to other developing countries. This work can be used as a reference book by fund managers, financial market analysts, researchers, academics, practitioners, policy makers and postgraduate students in the areas of finance, accounting, business and financial economics. It can also be a supplementary text for Ph.D. and Masters' students in these areas.

This book studies the relationships between economic growth and social welfare and the policy implications of these relationships for development. Understanding the relationships between economic growth and social welfare is an enduring issue within contemporary development economics and welfare economics. These relationships are analysed in this book by operationalising normative social choice theory. Normative social choice theory is an appropriate approach as it explicitly incorporates society's preferences, values and choices in determining how social welfare should be defined and measured. Two approaches, aggregate and hierarchical, are developed and empirically applied to Thailand for a twenty-five year period 1975-1999. This book concludes that in terms of social welfare, economic growth cannot always be assumed desirable. What is needed is social welfare enhancing economic growth. A review of the policy implications of this finding is also undertaken.

Corporate governance is a subject of high academic and practical significance in contemporary business. The book determines and analyzes the relationship between corporate governance and the value of a firm in emerging and developed financial markets by using sophisticated econometric methods and models. The results of the study show that corporate governance does matter - there is a positive relationship between corporate governance and the value of a firm in these financial markets, although the nature of these relationships differ between emerging and developed financial markets because of the individual characteristics of these markets. This book makes an original contribution by undertaking a very comprehensive comparative econometric study on the poorly researched topic of the relationship between corporate governance and firm value in emerging and developed markets.

This book provides a technical and specialised discussion of contemporary and emerging issues in foreign exchange and financial markets by addressing the issues of risk management and theory and hypothesis development, which have general implications for finance theory and foreign exchange market management. It offers an in-depth, comprehensive analysis of the issues concerning the volatility of exchange rates. The book has three main objectives. First, it applies the integrated study of exchange rate volatility in terms of depth and breadth. Second, it applies the integrated study of exchange rate volatility in Malaysia, as a case study of a developing country. Malaysia had imposed capital control measures in the past and has now liberalised its exchange rate market and will continue to liberalise it further in the long run. Hence, the need to understand exchange rate volatility measurement and management will be even more important in the future. Third, the book highlights new conditional volatility models for a developing country, such as Malaysia, and develops advanced econometric models which have produced results for sound risk management strategies and for achieving risk management in the financial market and the economy. Additionally, the authors recommend risk management themes which may be of relevance to other developing countries. This work can be used as a reference book by fund managers, financial market analysts, researchers, academics, practitioners, policy makers and postgraduate students in the areas of finance, accounting, business and financial economics. It can also be a supplementary text for Ph.D. and Masters' students in these areas.

The relationship between ownership structure and firm performance has been studied extensively in corporate finance and corporate governance literature. Nevertheless, the mediation (path) analysis to examine the issue can be adopted as a new approach to explain why and how ownership structure is related to firm performance and vice versa. This approach calls for full recognition of the roles of agency costs and corporate risk-taking as essential mediating variables in the bi-directional and mediated relationship between ownership structure and firm performance. Based on the agency theory, corporate risk management theory and accounting for the dynamic endogeneity in the ownership–performance relationship, this book develops two-mediator mediation models, including recursive and non-recursive mediation models, to investigate the ownership structure–firm performance relationship. It is demonstrated that agency costs and corporate risk-taking are the ‘missing links’ in the ownership structure–firm performance relationship. Hence, this book brings into attention the mediation and dynamic approach to this issue and enhances the knowledge of the mechanisms for improving firm’s financial performance. This book will be of interest to corporate finance, management and economics researchers and policy makers. Post-graduate research students in corporate governance and corporate finance will also find this book beneficial to the application of econometrics into multi-dimensional and complex issues of the firm, including ownership structure, agency problems, corporate risk management and financial performance.

The recent global ?nancial crisis has made ?nancial liberalization a topic of great academic and practical interest. This book makes new contributions to the topic by combining fact-?nding, empirical analysis, and theory to examine the relationship between ?nancial liberalization and economic growth. Among its contributions, the book provides detailed country assessments on the effects of ?nancial liberalization, including its striking impact on the banking sector. Although an important goal of ?nancial deregulation has been to help ?nancial institutions better perform their role in intermediating resources, the book models how deregulation may fail to achieve that goal in countries with underdeveloped ?nancial markets and institutions. For that purpose, the book draws on actual experience in Kenya, Malawi, Botswana, and Thailand. This book should constitute important reading for students of ?nancial economics, researchers and general academics, ?nancial practitioners, policymakers, and teachers of economics. North Carolina, USA Steven L. Schwarcz December 2008 Stanley A. Star Professor of Law & Business, Duke University Founding Director, Duke Global Capital Markets Center Durham vii Abstract and Preface The latest global ?nancial and economic crisis of 2008 shows the need to - examine the desirability of ?nancial liberalization and the basis for the view that ?nancial deregulation by itself cannot be considered as a substitute for better economic management. The literature on ?nancial liberalization has identi?ed various mechanisms through which removing controls on interest rates may impact economic growth.

The relationship between ownership structure and firm performance has been studied extensively in corporate finance and corporate governance literature. Nevertheless, the mediation (path) analysis to examine the issue can be adopted as a new approach to explain why and how ownership structure is related to firm performance and vice versa. This approach calls for full recognition of the roles of agency costs and corporate risk-taking as essential mediating variables in the bi-directional and mediated relationship between ownership structure and firm performance. Based on the agency theory, corporate risk management theory and accounting for the dynamic endogeneity in the ownership-performance relationship, this book develops two-mediator mediation models, including recursive and non-recursive mediation models, to investigate the ownership structure-firm performance relationship. It is demonstrated that agency costs and corporate risk-taking are the 'missing links' in the ownership structure-firm performance relationship. Hence, this book brings into attention the mediation and dynamic approach to this issue and enhances the knowledge of the mechanisms for improving firm's financial performance. This book will be of interest to corporate finance, management and economics researchers and policy makers. Post-graduate research students in corporate governance and corporate finance will also find this book beneficial to the application of econometrics into multi-dimensional and complex issues of the firm, including ownership structure, agency problems, corporate risk management and financial performance.

This book presents the theoretical background to risk and corporate crisis management and offers useful methods and techniques applicable to small and medium sized enterprises in the event of disastrous situations such as fire, flood, storm, etc. Unlike the vast majority of literature available in this field, this book:
concentrates on small and medium business organisations;
presents a comprehensive approach to crisis management involving all aspects of business operations;
adopts a systems approach at an organisational and crisis management levels;
approaches disaster recovery by identifying targets, instruments and policies during various phases of the crisis management process; and
employs commonly available software programs.
*This series: Provides an international perspective to the study of business, with a special emphasis on management and marketing issues
*Deals with such topics as globalization, international business negotiations, cross-cultural communication, entry strategies, doing business in different regions, and future trends
*Also focuses on the development of international business theory, methodological issues, the results of empirical studies and the findings of practitioners

This book analyzes the determinants and effectiveness of corporate governance in an integrated model drawing on contingency theory and employing structural equation modeling (SEM). Business competition as an environmental factor and strategy as an organizational factor are important determinants of corporate governance, while organizational performance and earnings quality are two dimensions of its effectiveness. This book focuses on the relationship between corporate governance and earnings management, and shows that corporate governance is effective in improving earnings quality and reducing accounting and governance risks. The authors also question the relation between corporate governance and company performance and present results of their analysis in this book.

The primary contribution of this book is to integrate the important disciplines which simultaneously impact the investment appraisal process. The book presents a study that develops a new approach to investment appraisal which uses a multiple objective linear programming (MOLP) model to integrate the selected disciplines which include capital markets, corporate governance and capital budgeting. The research covers two case studies, one in the e-commerce sector and another in the airline industry in which the above disciplines are integrated. Readers from the areas of corporate governance, regulation, and accounting would find the survey of different approaches and the new integrated optimization approach particularly useful.

This book reports initial efforts in providing some useful extensions in - nancial modeling; further work is necessary to complete the research agenda. The demonstrated extensions in this book in the computation and modeling of optimal control in finance have shown the need and potential for further areas of study in financial modeling. Potentials are in both the mathematical structure and computational aspects of dynamic optimization. There are needs for more organized and coordinated computational approaches. These ext- sions will make dynamic financial optimization models relatively more stable for applications to academic and practical exercises in the areas of financial optimization, forecasting, planning and optimal social choice. This book will be useful to graduate students and academics in finance, mathematical economics, operations research and computer science. Prof- sional practitioners in the above areas will find the book interesting and inf- mative. The authors thank Professor B.D. Craven for providing extensive guidance and assistance in undertaking this research. This work owes significantly to him, which will be evident throughout the whole book. The differential eq- tion solver "nqq" used in this book was first developed by Professor Craven. Editorial assistance provided by Matthew Clarke, Margarita Kumnick and Tom Lun is also highly appreciated. Ping Chen also wants to thank her parents for their constant support and love during the past four years.